“Sites have been cleared, contractors have come” – Volta Regional Minister on resettlement program for flood victims

The government, through the Ministry of Housing, has initiated a resettlement program for communities affected by floods caused by the spillage of the Akosombo and Kpong dams along the upper Volta in 2023.

The program aims to provide suitable housing units for people whose homes were destroyed by the floods, rendering them uninhabitable.

Preliminary data indicates that approximately 5,200 households were affected by the floods in 19 districts along the Volta River in the Volta, Eastern, Greater Accra, and Oti Regions. In the Volta Region, communities in the North, Central, and South Tongu, Anloga, Keta, North and South Dayi Districts, as well as Kpando and Ketu South Municipalities, were impacted.

During a stakeholder engagement, the Volta Regional Minister, Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa, revealed that nine sites have been identified in the affected areas and cleared for the construction of housing units.

“We have started the process for resettlement, the sites have been cleared, contractors have come. The [Housing] Minister is here for us to validate the assessment that we have done”, he said.

The Minister-designate for Works and Housing, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, headed a delegation to engage stakeholders and inspect construction sites in the Central and North Tong.

He conducted a ceremonial sod-cutting at New Bakpa and Mepe sites, two of the nine earmarked for the housing project in the region. He assured that the units would be ready in six months.

Oppong-Nkrumah clarified that due to government policy decisions guiding the project’s implementation, the housing units would not be identical to what the victims had before the disaster.

“We must also understand that there would be a policy decision around the resettlement because not everybody will get exactly what they had before the disaster, but we have to be able to bring some.

“May I say, uniformity and basic to the intervention that government has provided. That is why we also need the cooperation and collaboration of the potential beneficiaries”, he said.

“We also want to ask the potential beneficiaries that all the data that we need for this exercise must have integrity. Now is not the time for people to play friendly games in an attempt to get more than what ought to be made available to them.

He also mentioned that the National Intelligence Bureau has deployed officers in various districts to work with them to ensure the integrity of the data collected for the resettlement project is maintained.

Mr. Oppong-Nkrumah appealed to traditional authorities to provide land for the construction of housing units to facilitate the successful implementation of the resettlement program.

In a related development, the Manklalo of the Mepe Traditional Area, Torgbe Korsi Nego VI, called for the judicious use of the lands allocated for the housing projects. He also appealed for the reconstruction of roads affected by the floods.

He further urged the government to carry out extensive preventative measures, such as constructing and dredging drains and building defense walls, in the affected areas.