Former President John Dramani Mahama, on Saturday, inaugurated phase two of the ‘Safe Alternative Housing’ unit at Battor, where about 12,000 residents displaced by the September-November 2023 Akosombo Dam spillage were accomodated.
The construction of the disability-friendly houses, an initiative of the North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and partners, started on December 13, 2023 and was completed on January 31, 2024.
The phase two housing unit would provide shelter for three hundred victims – with priority to the aged and physically challenged persons.
According to former President John Mahama, who was the Special Guest of Honour, given the enormous number of displaced victims who are yet to be resettled, the government would have to intervene before the rains set in.
In addition to some three hundred victims who benefited from the first resettlement at Aveyime, John Mahama observed that the total is a fraction of the victims who urgently need resettlement, to avert health and psychological trauma.
He added: “The people have lost their source of livelihoods as well. Therefore, we call on the government to turn its attention to the victims of North Tongu, who are suffering as a result of the Akosombo Dam spillage.”
John Mahama said the facility would be converted into a Nursing Training center, should the government provide a resettlement place to the victims or provide them with resettlement financial compensation to enable them to rebuild their previous houses.
He sympathised with the condition of the victims and expressed the victims’ and the MP’s profound gratitude to all those who partnered with the MP to ameliorate the plight of the residents.
Earlier, The Chronicle visited the temporary homes of 321 victims at the Mepe Degorme Camp, ‘A’ USAID tent, where Donutsor Gloria, the NADMO officer-in-charge, said the people are fed through the benevolence of the MP, the Mepe Traditional Council, the Muslim communities and some individuals.
She narrated the ordeal the people had to endure when they were moved to settle in the tents in December.
“The people killed wild serpents to clear the area for habitation. Rains came in to inconvenience their stay here. The people are doing their best to survive in these tents, which are not habitable when the weather is hot.
“I am excited that some of them here are beneficiaries of the phase two resettlement. It is our prayer that every displaced victim gets a permanent resident at the end of it all to enable them to go back to their work.”
