Over 400 residents living along the Tordzinu River in the Lawoshime Electoral Area, Keta Municipality, of the Volta Region have been displaced by the overflow of the river.
The homeless were from Hagodzi, Songbe, Mamime, Agovinu, Awlakpota, Agongbe, Lawoshime and all villages in the Lawoshime Electoral Area.
Assemblyman for the area, Mr Noah Agor said the people fear contracting cholera and malaria if no immediate assistance is sent to them.
In a telephone interview, Mr Agor told The Finder that the displaced persons have been sleeping in the open since last Friday evening when the disaster hit the area, and the people of the Lawoshime Electoral Area, who are mainly crop farmers and local gin (akpeteshie) distillers, the assemblyman recounted, have lost virtually all their properties to the flood.
Last Friday�s disaster, he described, was worse than any other the area had experienced over the last four years, saying: �The number of affected persons are more and the houses and properties that have been eroded are greater too. The situation is worse.�
The assemblyman said some Good Samaritans in neighbouring communities came to their aid with canoes to rescue some of the residents to safety while others took refuge on their rooftops as the canoes lifted the displaced persons in batches.
The Tordzinu River, which takes its source from the Adaklu Mountains, overflowed its banks about eight days ago, thereby causing havoc to some buildings and properties in Adaklu.
The river enters the sea at Keta on the coast through Lawoshime and often when the river causes damages to properties upstream, it does not spare those downstream at Lawoshime; however, this year�s disaster has been the worst at Lawoshime.
The assemblyman, Mr Agor, told The Finder that the area�s Member of Parliament (MP), Mr Richard Quarshiga, had toured the area to assess the damage caused to their properties and sympathised with them, and further assured them of reaching the municipality�s National Disaster and Management Organisation (NADMO) Co-ordinator to send them some relief items.
Mr Agor, however, said the relief items ought to come in time to save the displaced people from diseases.
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