This time, persistent rains in Ho and its environs caused the Kalakpa River to swell with strong currents, flowing through the Adaklu and Central Tongu districts to North Tongu, where it ran over the farm at dawn.

The Volta Regional Director of Agriculture, William Dzamefe, said the farm belonged to a private company, which had seeded the land barely a fortnight ago.

He said the jobs of 15 permanent workers and 20 casuals on the farm had now been put on hold. The floods come almost a year after similar floods caused by spillage from the Volta Dam wreaked havoc in the Tongu area and other parts of southern Volta Region.

New field

Mr Dzamefe said the landowners had decided to allocate a field on higher grounds to the owners of the farm.  However, he said, planting on the new field would be too late for the major season.

He explained that planting could only take place in the minor season between November this year and February next year. The Regional Director of Agriculture gave an assurance that there was no threat to food security in the area.

The floods did not extend to homes and no casualty was recorded. As of last Monday, the farm was still deluged which showed no sign of receding.

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This follows the receding of the flood waters and subsequent fumigation of some communities weeks after the spillage.

Speaking on the AM Show on JoyNews, Deputy Director General of Technical and Reforms for NADMO, Seji Saji Amedonu said the organization is pumping out the remaining flood water from the various communities.

“We have some structures that were completely covered, some structures that the water was at the base level and some structures that the water was at the window level, some also less than the window or about two feet.

“Those ones have the residents moving back immediately the water depleted.

“When the water receded, some places were completely dried out and those one are the areas that some fumigation were done but there is still pools of water in the Mepe township.

“We are working very hard now and for four or five days we have been pumping the water into a channel that will lead it back into the river.

“So for returning to their homes, quite a lot of people have returned to their homes,” he “So for returning to their homes, quite a lot of people have returned to their homes,” he explained.

Over 26,000 people according to the National Disaster Management Organisation (NaDMO) were displaced and rendered homeless.

The Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Eric Nkansah also announced that teaching and learning has resumed in 81 out of 108 schools affected by the Akosombo Dam spillage in nine districts recently.

He said the dire situation of flooding following the spillage of the Akosombo Dam is normalising in the Tongu communities.

Mr Saji Amedonu, speaking to the Ghana News Agency, in an interview on Thursday, October 26 said, “We are making progress as the flood has seen some recession as of Wednesday.”

He noted that the Volta River has shown signs of downward flow and maintaining its course, a situation that is compelling stagnant floodwater which is inundating some communities to recede.

He said if the trend continued, in a week’s time: many volumes of water would have moved out from the communities towards the sea.

Statistics shared by the Volta River Authority (VRA) on Thursday indicate the spill level reducing from 3:542 m3/s to about 2,571 m3/s with a resultant discharge of about 4,009 m3/s as the inflow continues to decline.

The Deputy Director-General said it was too early to draw any conclusions, but cautioned displaced victims against rushing to reoccupy their buildings as experts would have to vouch for the integrity of their dwellings and address public health interventions to guarantee their safety.

On relief administration, Mr Saji Amedonu said a humanitarian response would be maintained for a long time towards stabilising the welfare of the affected victims.

VRA’s controlled spillage of the Akosombo Dam from September 15, till date, has flooded communities in the Lower Volta Basin, destroying properties running into millions of cedis and burying large tracts of farms and food crops in addition to businesses and shattering the tourism industry in the affected areas.

More than 31,000 people have been displaced and are held up in various safe havens and living on humanitarian reliefs by state and private as well as political parties and NGOs.