FLOODS SUBMERGE 65 WEST GONJA COMMUNITIES (BACK PAGE, SEPT 7, 2010)

SIXTY-FIVE communities in the West Gonja District of the Northern Region have been submerged by floods due to the spillage of the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso and torrential rains in the region.
No casualty has so far been recorded but 339 houses have been destroyed leading to the displacement of more than 175 people.
Additionally, 6,000 acres of farmland and some livestock have been washed away by the floods.
The West Gonja District Co-ordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Madam Habiba Alhassan, expressed shock at the level of destruction caused by the floods after touring the affected areas.
Communities like Mankaragu and Lukula have been completely cut off from the rest of the region and the people now use canoes to reach the nearest health facility at Sandema, which is about five kilometres from the two towns.
During the district co-ordinator’s tour, 11 cattle, nine goats and some guinea fowls were found drowned in the floods and about 2,000 acres of farmland at Mankaragu alone, containing maize, millet groundnut and guinea corn, were washed away.
The situation is very critical in the district, which is usually referred to as “overseas” and surrounded by a lot of streams.
Madam Alhassan took the opportunity to entreat the government, development partners and non-governmental organisations to help normalise the situation by donating relief items to the people.
The West Mamprusi District NADMO Co-ordinator, Mr James Braimah, also had his share of the trouble as Kabori community in his district had also been submerged following the floods but he could not readily disclose the number of people affected and properties destroyed.
According to him, a couple in that community was made homeless as their house collapsed.
Mr Braimah indicated that the couple are currently being housed at the community’s Area Council.
He stated that a number of farm produce that were recently harvested by the people had been washed away by the floods.
Meanwhile, the Northern Regional Co-ordinator of NADMO, Alhaji Abdulai Silimboma, accompanied by some officials from his outfit, is currently touring the affected communities in the region.
Last week, two farmers who failed to heed the advice of the NADMO not to visit their farms got drowned in the White Volta when they were returning from their farms in a small boat.