The University of Cape Coast, UCC, and its surrounding communities on Friday bore the brunt of a massive environmental crisis following severe torrential rains.
This left hundreds of students displaced, with many losing vital academic materials, stationery, and personal effects to the heavy downpour.
Providing an update on ATL FM’s Atlantic Wave Issues Segment, the Central Regional Director of the National Disaster Management Organization, NADMO, Mr. Kwesi Dawood, explicitly cleared the university authorities and students of any blame.
Instead, he attributed the devastating inflows to an engineered regional problem caused by structural bottlenecks across Cape Coast.
“It is a Cape Coast problem that UCC had to bear the brunt of it; I mean, the water receptacles that are supposed to receive this excess rainfall,” he said. “We have people building structures along these courses for their short-term economic gains. We have people also dumping refuse indiscriminately at certain vantage areas to block the free flow of water.”
Mr. Dawood indicated that there is the need “for long-term engineering solutions in some areas.“
According to the NADMO Regional Director, key channels that drain water away from the university community are currently heavily choked.
He cited a raging legal dispute over a massive refuse dam at the Apewosika stretch, plastic waste blockages behind the Abura market, and a refuse dump at Ola Madina as major triggers that forced excess water back into campus corridors.
Worse still, critical drainage channels that stream into the Fosu Lagoon have been entirely blocked by developers protecting short-term commercial interests.
The disaster has severely stretched emergency services. With over five thousand flood victims across thirteen districts and eighteen confirmed deaths region-wide, NADMO notes that its emergency relief stores are now completely empty.
The organization is making a special, urgent appeal for mattresses, blankets, medical supplies, and specialized aid for vulnerable groups—including nursing mothers, pregnant women, and students within the university community.
NADMO is calling on the Hydrological Authority and local municipal assemblies to enforce strict building regulations and execute permanent engineering solutions to safeguard the university and the wider Cape Coast metropolis.
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