Distressed residents of Berase appeal for support

Residents of Abrem Brase, a community in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem (KEEA) Municipality, are still living in distress five days after the community was left in tatters by floods.

Scores of people have been displaced, hundreds are stranded and many have been robbed of their personal effects by the disaster.

Additionally, schools have become inaccessible to some pupils and teachers on one side of the community, while farmers are having a hard time carting food home from their farms.

The situation has brought economic activities to a near halt and making life unbearable for the residents.

At least, 50 houses in Berase were flattened, hundreds of others were submerged and a bridge in the middle of the community collapsed after the downpour on Saturday, June 18.

Partial damage caused to the town’s electricity transformer by the rainstorm left parts of the community without light.

No casualties were, however, recorded.

Narrating their ordeal to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), some residents described the disaster as unprecedented, attributing it to the overflow of the Nteretre river.

They said a number of them had been rendered homeless and living miserably with no sign of hope.

They, therefore, appealed to government, private institutions and individuals to go to their aid.

A resident, Mr Kwabena Aboagye narrated how a four-bedroom house belonging to his uncle was completely flattened by the floods and an amount of GHC4,800 lost to the disaster, rendering him homeless. 

“We are pleading with the government and all philanthropists to come to the aid of this community. We need building materials such as cement and roofing sheets to help reconstruct some of the buildings,” he appealed.  

Another resident, Mr Kwame Afful, bemoaned the state of the collapsed bridge which he said was gravely affecting agriculture and educations.

“Some school children and teachers cannot go to school because of the bridge. I am a farmer, and I am just coming from the farm, but I do not know how to get these foodstuffs home. It is not easy for us here,” he revealed.

He indicated that the community had received some assistance from the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) but it was woefully inadequate, hence the call for support.

“We have been separated from our loved ones on the other side. They cannot visit us and we cannot cross to their end. 

“Those at the other side who must go to Cape Coast cannot do so because of the bridge. We have lost everything,” Madam Esi Kwansema also told the GNA.

For his part, Nana Agyei Brakwaa III, the Ankobeahen of Abirem Berase, said he was glad no death was recorded but urged government to fix their bridge as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, Roads Minister Mr Kwasi Amoako-Attah on Monday, June 20, visited the community and assured that civil works would soon begin to reconstruct the bride.

Mrs Justina Marigold Assan, Central Regional Minister who also visited the community indicated that the devastation in region was too overwhelming for government alone to contain.

She, therefore, called on all individuals and institutions to support the region, adding that “we are seriously in difficult times”

However, she said Regional Coordinating Council had acquired a number of learning materials and clothing to distribute to affected residents.