Wednesday, March 24, 2010

FALLING KASAPA MAST DESTROYS PROPERTY AT ANYIMA (PAGE 20, MARCH 24, 2010)

MANY buildings and other property of some households were destroyed and a goat killed at Anyima, a farming community in the Kintampo South District in the Brong Ahafo Region, when a mast belonging to Kasapa, a telecommunication company, collapsed during a rainstorm.
It was the second time that a mast of the telecommunication company had collapsed under the same circumstances in the district.
 The first was at Apesika, also a farming community in the district, in which three people died instantly with five others sustaining injuries in May, last year.
  The people who died during the first incident were Wanipa Magan, Tengatan Tapure and Yaw Terpuan but in the second incident, no casualty was recorded but it destroyed buildings and other property in the area as the inhabitants of the building were not in their rooms when it occurred.
Some residents who spoke to the Daily Graphic attributed the two incidents within a period of less than a year in the district to the work of witchcraft and curses, while others said it was as a result of shoddy work on the part of the contractors who constructed the masts.
According to eyewitnesses, the first incident saw the 120-metre tall mast simply sag and tilt over when a strong wind preceded a downpour.
The virtually completed mast, which had been sited about 80 metres from the Apesika market shed, fell over the market destroying the sheds and killing individuals in the process.
The DCE, who briefed the Daily Graphic, said the Kasapa officials contacted him to assist them to locate the relatives of the deceased to arrange for compensation.
He said at the time of the collapse of the first mast, work was progressing on an identical one in Anyima, also in the Kintampo South District.
Mr Datiakwa said authorities of the district assembly quickly issued a stop work order against the construction of the second mast.
That, he said, was based on the fact that the engineering designs on both masts were similar.
Moreover, investigations revealed that wind speeds in both locations were similar.
“We requested them to either maintain their specifications but relocate the mast or reduce the height of the mast or relocate the people living in that area, but the advice fell on deaf ears,” the DCE said.
Mr Datiakwa said all that the contractor did was to write back, saying that nothing would happen in the name of God.
He stated that just a few weeks before the collapse of the mast in Anyima, Kasapa agents came to pay their permit fee for the construction, but he said he rejected it with the explanation that the fee would have given his tacit approval for the construction.
Meanwhile, officials at the Kasapa office in Sunyani have confirmed the incidents and said the company had already paid GH¢16,000 each to the families of those who lost their lives in the first accident at Apesika while efforts were being made to forestall any future occurence. 

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