Floods Endanger Health of Senegalese Community

 

The lives of thousands of residents of Djeddah Thiaroye Kao, a suburb of Dakar, Senegal in the Pikine District, are at risk due to torrential rains which floods the area.

 

The large land area with over 66 district and 6,000 houses is usually emerged in water after heavy downpours in the raining seasons which ends up displacing people.

 

A visit to the community by 27 media personnel of the West African Journalist Network, attending a three day meeting in Dakar, Senegal, with support from Wateraid and WSCC, showed that residents are exposed to diseases such as malaria, diarrhoea, skin diseases and Guinea worm infects among others.

 

the first things that greeted the journalists included deserted houses with over grown weeds, rubbles of what use to be the homes of people and refuse.

 

In terms of sanitation, the reporters observed that the abandoned houses were serving as refuse dumps sites with cats and birds having a field’s day.

 

Seyna Bou-Ngom, a 28-year-old mother of one, in an interview said ‘we live in difficult situations here especially in the month of June to August every year when the rains come, we experience the highest point of our predicament.’

 

She speaks passionately about the situation and expresses her worry over the government’s lack of support to alleviate their plight.

 

‘In 2005, when we were hit by the biggest flood, we were only relocated to live under tents. The government only provided us with some bed sheets, mosquito nets and receptacles. We need pragmatic measure to reduce the impact of the floods here and that is all we are asking for,’ said Ms. Bou-Ngom with a sense of bitterness in her voice.

 

She indicated that ‘the floods have changed our lives,’ explaining that all households are obliged, as a results of the rains which destroys anything in its ways, to keep important items over a certain height, and when the rains start 'we are compelled to even say our prayers, eat and do other things on our beds instead of the floor.’

 

She points out how sand is used to fill the area around the houses as a measure to prevent the rain water from entering the rooms but most of the houses have almost sunk to the window level as a result of this practice.

 

According to Ibrahim Sane, a technician at the Municipality, the level at which the floods hit the community has been raising over the years.

 

He explained that each year, the level gets about ten meters higher and doubts the strategy of raising the buildings or filling the ground was the best solution.

 

Mr. Sane hints that there are only three health centers to serve the population of over 70, 000 while out of 29,000 children only 12,000 are enrolled in school as a result of the lack of infrastructure.

 

Coumba Sarr, a 14 year-old girl was seen washing  outside her home behind a wall which are half washed by the rain. 

The wall just like many of the others which were seen looks like it would fall anytime soon with the least force applied 

 

She tells the journalists that her family has never left their home despite the floods and pressure from the municipality to relocate for safety, but has rather resorted to using garbage to refill the ground at a cost of CFA 20,000 per truck.

 

 

Mayor of the Municipality, Aliou Diouck, admits that the stagnant water in the communities breeds lava which develops into mosquitoes- the main causative agents of malaria.

 

He said last year, the municipality recorded 11 deaths due to the collapse of a weak building while they are reports of water borne diseases among others.

 

However, he stated that there are plans to undertake an 11 billion dollar project which would provide a sustainable solution to the flooding problem of the area.

 

He said the project which would include a run water management and climate change adaptation would include the resettlement of about 8,000 people who are usually hit by the floods.

 

‘A feasibility study of the project has been done and an environmental assessment is also being carried out what is left to do is the  declaration of the area as a public utility area and then we can resettle the inhabitants after compensating them.’

 

Though most of the people are illegal settlers, the Mayor admits that they now have a natural access to the land since they have been occupants for decades.

 

 

Vodafone Cable Thieves Grabbed

Published on April 3, 2013 Three scrape dealers are in the custody of the Dansoman Police on suspicion of stealing telecommunication cables believed to belong to Vodafone Ghana Limited. It is estimated that the cables which were in two different types of 10000.6 and 10000.4 with their total length of 25 meters could be worth GH¢10, 000. The three, Nuhu Alidu, popularly known as Taller, 30 and Osman fafianu, also 30 years as well as Awal Yakubu, 26, who claimed to be residents of Agbogbloshie were arrested on March 27, 2013, and expected to be put before an Accra Circuit Court soon. ASP Christopher Owusu, Crime officer of the Dansoman District Police said at about 3:45 p.m. on the said date, while on duty, police personnel at Dansoman spotted two of the suspects, namely Osman Fafianu and Awal Yakubu, pushing a truck with two fertilizer sacks on it. On suspicion, he said, the police personnel decided to find out the content of the heavy sacks and so searched the track pushers. “A search conducted revealed that electrical wires suspected to be telecom cables were in the sacks and they were arrested and brought to the station,” said ASP Owusu. According to the Crime Officer, the suspects in their caution statements maintained they bought the items from someone near Sakaman, a suburb of Accra but were not ready to disclose the identity of the one who sold the cables to them. “During further investigations and interrogations they confessed they were asked by one Nuhu Alidu, to cart the cables to Agbogbloshie from Sakaman and later led the police to arrest him from his hideout at Agbogbloshie,” he added. ASP Owusu stated that when Alidu was arrested he confirmed that the cables were for him but denied stealing the cables and insisted he bought them from two men he met in a white car on the Odorkor-Mallam road on March 26, 2013. However, no matter how hard the police tried to make them give the names of the sellers of the cables Alidu was not ready to give them any information. “He woefully failed to identify them to the Police,” said Crime Officer Owusu when he briefed DAILY GUIDE at the Dansoman Police Station. Further investigation, ASP Owusu noted, led the police to the Vodafone Ghana Dansoman branch “and they identified the cables as theirs.” Latter an assessment of the cables which were greasy with some black substances on them indicated that they were underground cables. Cable theft has been reported as one of the biggest challenges of the telecommunication industry which cost millions of Ghana Cedis annually to replace either stolen or broken cables. Telecommunication operators have said on countless occasions that cable theft blight their infrastructure and disrupt their operations and end up frustrating users of the network. By Emelia Ennin Abbey

President Files Tax Returns

President John Mahama yesterday filed his tax returns for the year 2012 at the head office of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA). The filing of the tax was witnessed by some top commissioners of GRA. He also paid a brief working visit to the Authority. By law, the President, under Article 68 sub section five of the 1992 Constitution, is exempt from paying taxes but the President is expected to file his returns on any extra income earned annually. It is reported that the President earned extra income from the sale of his Book “My First Coup D’état” and his involvement in agriculture. The annual deadline to file one’s income tax return is April each year however the GRA lists scenarios for which Tax Day does not follow this standard deadline. President Mahama, after receiving his tax clearance certificate from the Commissioner of the Large Tax Payers Unit, Comfort Boahene, said the Authority is critical for the running of governments as it raises revenue needed for the improvement of the lives of the citizenry. “Revenue is what gives us the good things we want. The roads do not appear magically, we need revenue to build them.” He noted that Ghana appears to have very low revenue to GDP ratio as compared to other African countries. “Kenya’s revenue to GDP is about 24 percent while that of Ghana is about 17 to 18 per cent. We have to move beyond 20 per cent.” In line with this, the President said there were plans to pass legislation that would bring more people into the tax net. He commended the GRA for collaborating with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to help advance the economic progress of the nation. “We will come up with reforms to help with the system of collection of revenue. He however urged the management of the GRA to sensitize its staff “to embrace the change when it happens.” George Blankson, Commissioner General of the GRA, praised the President for filling his tax religiously, adding “it is an obligation for us and the public to emulate this attitude to ensure we file our tax on time.” He expressed appreciation to the President and government as a whole for supporting GRA in its efforts to modernize. “Recently, the three percent provided for us had saved us from queuing and funds are now paid directly to GRA accounts and this tremendously improved our operations.” He urged government to continue investing in tax administration and revenue collection, stressing that the current GRA head office is inadequate. He therefore called for the inclusion of the construction of a new head office for the GRA in the next budget. Mr. Blankson also called for the quick passage of the legislation, which was announced in the 2012 Budget to broaden the tax base. “The passage of the legislation would enable us collect more revenue needed for developmental projects. By Emelia Ennin Abbey