5-Hour downpour causes havoc in Ho

About 1,000 birds at a local poultry farm have died in floods, which also caused extensive damage to farmlands at Sokode, Ho-Godokpe and homes in Ho- Barracks New Town, especially the area opposite the Barracks First Gate.

Thereafter, last Sunday, some residents in the vicinity of Sokode-Gbogame near Ho went on an expedition, carrying sacks to pick the dead fowls from the floods caused by a five-hour downpour in the area last Saturday.

The rainfall, which started at about 3:00 pm and ended at about 8:00 pm, filled many houses, buried crops on farms, damaged culverts and footbridges, brought down fence walls of many homes and left roads flooded, damaged and unmotorable.

The Volta Regional Director of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Paschal Agbagba, told the Daily Graphic last Sunday that there were no human casualties.

“However, many people were displaced”, he said.

Mr Agbagba said some farms at Sokode were no longer accessible as the foot bridges on the way had collapsed under the deluge.

However, the floods in some areas in the municipality receded substantially the next morning.

Motorists are still avoiding the Ho-Barracks New Town area as a result of the horrible state of the roads in the area.

The regional director of NADMO blamed the severity of the floods on buildings put up on watercourses and in wetlands (swampy areas).

“The drains have also outlived their usefulness as a result of the structural designs and highlight the need for new designs,” he told the Daily Graphic.

Mr Agbagba said NADMO was now collaborating with the Ho Municipal Assembly to immediately work on some of the drains in the affected areas.