MP calls on gov’t to halt invasion of black flies

Mr Boniface Gambila, Member of Parliament for Nabdam Constituency, has requested the Government to swiftly step in to save the Nabdam District in the Upper East Region from an invasion of black flies.

“We are suffering. The Government must quickly step in; for we as a people, and individuals cannot do anything. Our fate is to be bitten by the black flies and suffer from glaucoma,” the MP told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in a telephone interview.

The MP said he was at a loss why early warning systems for checking the flies are not working.

“We can’t do anything here, only to spend working time to fan and drive away the black flies, and yet the Government has for the past six years collected more than GH?400,000.00 at source from the District Assemblies’ Common Fund for the Nabdam District towards fumigation and environmental sanitation,” he said.

He added: “This is not an individual affair, it affecting the people living along the Red Volta, and in the forest and the bushes. It is affecting farming and food production. ”

Mr Gambila, therefore, urged the Government to account for the monies collected, and use it to stem the loosing disaster of black fly invasion, and its rippling effects such as food shortages and poverty in the area.

The Legislator recalled that Government had in the past, in the 1970s and 1980s depended on international organizations to address the problem of the files and queried why the exercise had not continued for some years now.

He said the fumigation exercise helped to weaken the flies, but they were now in full force in the area, and hence the need to conduct more fumigation exercises now.

Mr Gambila also asked for fairness on the part of Government to bring back the contractors working on roads in the District, which have been suspended since 2009 on the excuse of lack of funds.

He asked the Government to explain the suspension of works on roads in the Nabdam District, arguing that, some roads in the southern sector are still being worked on at a time when funds are said to be unavailable.