A girl in her early teens has lost her life at Moshie Zongo as a result of yesterday’s rains in Kumasi. She and her three siblings slipped into a trench dug for an abandoned drainage project. The drainage was being constructed by a fuel station and it is on a waterway. She died trapped in the mud under the drain before rescuers reached her.
Needless and preventable was the clear inference at the scene where 13 year old Momee drowned.
Moome together with three other ladies slipped into an uncompleted drain being constructed by a fuel station which has been built in a swampy water way at Moshie Zongo.
Fuel attendants and other community members struggled through the heavy rains and floods to rescue three of Momee’s siblings from this open trench which had not been cordoned off with any caution tapes.
The 13 year old girl’s lifeless body was later found, caught up in the mud below the drain.
The assembly member of the Yenyawoso assembly area, Awudu Razack absolved himself of blame in supervising this death trap. He however accused the National Disaster Management Organisation, the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and other city authorities for failing to supervise the construction of the drain – an abandoned project which could obviously be said to be the cause of the girl’s death.
GHOne News gathered that the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and the Environmental Protection Agency had threatened to close down the fuel station if its managers failed to construct drains to fix the perennial flooding caused by building in the waterway.
The blame game continued between city authorities and management of the filling station.
It’s Ashanti regional director Shawu Razak insisted that his contractor was to take the fall for failing to complete the construction and covering of the drain on time.
The Tafo Police which took custody of the body however remains tight-lipped about the situation as it undertakes its investigations.
But as the rains continue to pour in, the big question is who might be next to slip into this rather perilous trench.
Source: GHOne TV/ GHANA | Ivan Fumador reports
