Rainy Weather, Mud Houses

During our visit with the Okomfo, heavy rains fell for several hours. It was one of the most sustained rainfalls we've witnessed, and it came down so hard that even the spray from the rain hitting the patio was enough to come in sideways and flood the covered area where we sat.

The region we were in is very mountainous, and I learned that evening that one of the villages in the valley had been severely flooded throughout the afternoon. The man we were staying with is a disaster management deputee, so I asked to accompany him on his trip to the village the next morning to take account of the damage. We were up at dawn and racing through the fog to get to the village before the people went off to work on their farms for the day.

When we arrived, the villagers explained that a water vein from up the mountainside must have burst, and that a sudden rush of water had came down on the village. This, combined with the sustained rain and the overflowing of a nearby creek, resulted in several homes collapsing and twenty families having to evacuate their homes and spend the night in the church building which was on higher ground. They asked me to take some photos during the visit.

You can see how high the water reached as it rushed along the side of this home:

Residents were anxious to show us the damage to their property, hoping that some funding and assistance would be forthcoming.

This is the front yard of the man pictured above:

The homes are all built with mud, clay, and sticks, which makes them particularly vulnerable to erosion and collapse from the rushing water.

From what I could see, much of the town was built in a basin, with the road acting as a retaining wall for all the water that came rushing down the mountainside. There is a tunnel about one metre in diametre dug under the road for drainage. I pointed out that the tunnel was partially blocked, and one of the villagers explained that before this flood occured, it had been half-plugged with dried mud from a flood which took place over a month ago.

One year ago, a similar flood in a nearby village killed three people. I passed that village on the way home and saw that many of the people are still living in tents by the roadside.

We are currently just at the beginning of the rainy season. What is urgently needed is to relocate some of the homes up the hill, to dig drainage channels through the town and a second and even third tunnel under the road (there's a river on the other side), and to make sure that the tunnels are kept clear.

Without the funding and expertise for the landscaping and without the will of the residents to move their homes to the other end of the village, it's sad to think that a relatively simple but very serious problem will continue to plague the village.

- Davis