10-Year-Old Girl Allegedly Drown After Heavy Downpour in Koforidua 

A 10-year old girl has allegedly drowned in flood Waters in Nsuokwao, a suburb of Koforidua after a heavy downpour in Koforidua, Eastern Regional capital yesterday October 19, 2021.

The girl is said to have been allegedly carried away by the flood Waters in the Nsukwao drainage facility while returning home from school with her friend.

Assemblymember for the Area, Bernard Acheampong opined, all efforts made to search and retrieve the girl since the incident happened by a joint team of NADMO and Police proved futile.

The search will continue this morning in the Nsukwao drainage facility until the body is found.

The Koforidua-Sentimental area in New Juaben South Municipality in Eastern Region was seriously flooded after a downpour on Tuesday afternoon October 19, 2021.

The Sentimental area used to experience such devastating flooding whenever there was torrential rainfall but the New Juaben South Municipal Assembly was confident the newly constructed Nsukwao Basin Drainage project has fixed the flood problems in the area.

However, Tuesday’s downpour seems to have exposed this claim.

Many shops, homes were flooded after the floodwaters in the drainage overflew its bank. The main road was also flooded which made it difficult for motorists and pedestrians to cross.

Many parts of Koforidua continue to experience similar floods for the past two months leading to the loss of properties and displacement of occupants of homes and shops.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on August 4, 2020, cut sod for the construction of the GH¢15,811,145.00 Nsukwao Basin Drainage Project, in Koforidua under the Ghana Secondary Cities Support Programme (GSCSP) of the World Bank to mitigate the perennial flooding situation in the Municipality.

The project included the installation of four (4) stormwater surface detention ponds distributed along the Nsukwao River, flow facilities, channelization, and streambank stabilization, concrete pipes and culverts, and two access roads.

However, residents in New Juaben are questioning the quality of work done on the completed project hence calling on the World Bank and President Akufo Addo to investigate.

For the victims, the flood was the worst in many decades.

“It looks as if the leadership of the nation is not serious.

"This Nsukwao drainage is funded by the World Bank. So we were expecting quality and excellent job, not this shoddy work.

"The consultant and contractor instead of breaking the old gutter and constructing a new gutter they didn’t do that rather did an embankment at just one side and it couldn’t solve the problem.

"Many people are homeless now” Stephen Akakpo added.

William Ofori Akeaboa, Eastern Regional Correspondent