…as Volta disaster displaces 54,000
The president of Ghana’s private newspaper publishers’ association has made a personal intervention in the Volta Region flood crisis, donating food and hygiene supplies to more than 90 households in Agbozume a gesture that underscores both the scale of the disaster and the limits of official relief efforts.
David Sitsofe Tamakloe, head of the Private Newspapers Publishers and Online Media Association of Ghana (PRINPAG), delivered the items on 19 July at the Evangelical Presbyterian School Park, in Ketu South Municipal District one of 12 districts hit by torrential rains that have displaced over 54,000 people across 66 communities since early July.
While the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has been active, the flooding has overwhelmed local capacities. In Ketu North’s Weta rice-farming community alone, more than 200 acres of farmland have been submerged, affecting the livelihoods of some 5,000 people. In Keta Municipality, 30 homes have collapsed in island communities including Laworshime, Hagodzi and Songbe.
Tamakloe, who presented the items to the local assemblyman for supervised distribution, acknowledged the burden on government and called for collective support from all Ghanaians. “Thanks to the media’s dedicated coverage, we have seen the suffering that you have had to endure,” he told beneficiaries, adding that he could not “sit by and not get involved.”
The PRINPAG president also used the occasion to caution residents against building on waterways a practice he attributed partly to the circumvention of permit requirements. The warning resonates across the region, where poor drainage and unregulated construction have long exacerbated flood risks.
Beyond Ketu South, the floods have cut off schools and health centres in Adutor, submerged parts of Sogakope, and caused significant displacement in Anloga, Central Tongu, North Tongu, Akatsi North and South, Adaklu, and Agotime Ziope. The full extent of damage to infrastructure and agriculture is still being assessed, but the humanitarian toll is already severe.
Tamakloe’s donation, while modest in scale, highlights the growing reliance on private and civil society actors to fill gaps in the state’s disaster management machinery a pattern that may prompt questions about NADMO’s preparedness and resourcing as Ghana faces increasingly erratic weather patterns.