Swimming School Kids Rescued

The kids walking through the water to school

The woes of children from Andokorpe and Dakekorpe who swim to school at Bokorvikorpe in the Ho West District of the Volta Region on daily basis are set to be a thing of the past.

This is because the District Assembly has stepped in to address the perennial flooding that affects the communities within the area.

In the interim, the assembly has relocated all the pupils; numbering 37 from the affected areas to Bokorvikorpe where the school is, to enable them successfully complete the term and write their end of term exams.

The assembly for the next two weeks will be feeding and taking care of the children who have been shared among families in Bokorvikorpe. This was an interim arrangement to succour the children till a permanent solution is found to the problem.

The Department of Feeder Roads is expected to conduct feasibility studies on the area to enable them start the construction of a suitable bridge that will connect the adjoining communities to Bokorvikorpe.

Prior to this arrangement, the children and their teachers had no choice than to swim or wade through dirty floodwater to school whenever it rained heavily

Apart from the torment of the perennial flooding, the children had to walk several kilometers daily to attend classes.

The teachers, most of whom live in Tsito, the closest urban community, were not spared as they had to walk also more than five kilometres daily before crossing the floodwater to teach the children. This was because the road leading to the school was so bad that drivers refuse to ply it.

Last week, social media was awashed with distress images of some children from Andokorpe and Dakekorpe traversing floodwater to go to school.

The flood, which the locals described as the worst ever did not spare the farms and crops of the residents who rely on farming for survival.

The situation, they said, had brought untold hardship to them as they were forced to harvest their crops prematurely for fear of losing everything.

Mr. Ernest Victor Apau the Ho West District Chief Executive, in an interview with DAILY GUIDE, said the assembly is in talks with the Regional Department of Feeder Roads to construct a suitable bridge over the Tsawe River which has overflowed its banks due to the incessant rainfall, to link the communities to solve the problem once and for all.

He said the assembly will rely also on the advice of the Feeder Roads to properly rehabilitate the road linking the communities to Tsito to alleviate the plight of the residents there.

The Ho West District NADMO Coordinator, Robert Elikem Ameh added that his outfit is liaising with stakeholders and other relevant institutions to provide relief items to the affected residents especially the pupils who have been resettled.

From Gibril Abdul Razak, Bokorvikofe (gbabdulrazak@gmail.com)

 

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