Pwalugu, (UE)) Sept. 27, GNA - The Parliamentary Select Committee on Social Welfare, Employment and State Enterprises, at the weekend visited the Upper East Region to acquaint themselves with the effects of the floods to help monitor the associated problems.
Briefing the team at Pwalugu, the Upper East Regional Coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation, (NADMO) Mr Patrick Akaake, said 13 people died, 2,482 human settlements were affected, and about 800 hectares of farms around the Volta river were destroyed, whilst some communities in the Bolgatanga area were cut off. "The annual opening of the Bagre Dam in Burkina always leaves farmers living close to the White Volta affected, though this year's spillage from the Dam did not affect much of human settlements," he said.
Mr Akaake said farmers who farmed near the White Volta were sensitized earlier to harvest their crops before the spillage to prevent their produce from flooding.
Asked what measures were put in place to support the affected farmers, Mr Akaake said rice, mattresses and beans had been distributed to the victims in the nine districts of the region. The team also visited the Yinduri Community in the Talensi Nabdam area to see for themselves the destruction suffered by the farmers. Mr Charles Hordogbey, Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tong, said the team found it necessary to visit the Northern part of the country to ascertain the effects of the floods and make recommendation for improvement of the situation.
Mr Suleman Gariba, a policy advisor on the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority, (SADA) said the government had initiated SADA to improve lives in the three Northern Regions. Conservation would be encouraged as well as improved farming practices, as part of its agenda to minimise the effects of the floods on the farmers.
Mrs Lucy Awuni, the Deputy Regional Minister, who accompanied the delegation, said apart from the annual spillage, the North had one short erratic rainfall pattern which affected farming and settlements saying that every year houses around Navrongo, Sandema and its environs collapse because of the nature of the buildings. She stressed the need for houses to be built on stronger foundations.
The team also visited farming communities in the Bawku West where a total of 2,482 persons were affected. It also went to the Buuri Dam in Temonde area to see the effect of the spillage. Mallam Shaibu Ibrahim, on behalf of farmers in the Temonde area, called on the Government not to withdraw the subsidy on fertilizers because it helped to reduce their financial burden.
He said their livelihoods had been affected due to the loss of their farms as most of them contracted seed loans to farm. He said every one bowl of seed loan attracts two bowls as repayment. He said the farmers were worried that all the water in the dam might dry up come the dry season as it usually happens and dry season farming would be affected.
He appealed to the government to build more dams and provide the farmers with water pumping machines to enable them carry out dry season gardening close to their homes so as not to get devastated by the spillage of the Bagre Dam in the future. Mrs Frema Osei-Opare, MP, Ayawaso Wogon, expressed appreciation for the efforts of the farmers, especially the hard working women, in coping with the situation and appealed to them not to relent in their efforts to care for their families.
