Parliamentarians want the north declared a disaster zone

Parliamentarians from northern Ghana have called for three regions affected by floods this month to be declared a disaster zone so that resources needed to assist people there can be mobilised.

The sum of about 60 billion cedis (just under US $21 million) is needed to resettle and rehabilitate the affected communities - 18 billion for relief food, 36 billion for emergency road repairs and six billion for drugs - the parliamentarians said.

"This amount is so colossal that the government can only be permitted to spend it under a declaration of a national disaster," they said in a statement read out in parliament on Tuesday by M. A. Seidu, deputy majority leader in the house.

He said the government alone could not stand the cost of rehabilitating the area and appealed to NGOs, international organisations, churches and donor agencies to help by providing food aid, building materials and drugs.

Seidu said the floods had displaced about 150,000 persons and destroyed 70,000 acres of farmland. "The people are faced with severe food shortages," he said. Many kilometres of roads have been washed away and several communities have been cut off, he added.