4 PERISH IN FLOODS...150 Others rendered homeless (D/G Friday August 22, 2008 front page)

FOUR days of persistent rains in the Upper East Region have claimed four lives and rendered 150 people homeless in the West Mamprusi and Builsa districts respectively.
At Janga in the West Mamprusi District four people drowned in the floods, raising fears of the worst disaster, if the floodgates to the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso are opened as expected on Sunday.
Burkinabe officials announced that the floodgates would be opened yesterday but this was postponed.
In the Builsa District the rains are said to have swept away the houses of the 150 victims, who are seeking refuge with friends and relatives.
A Senior Community Relations Officer of the Volta River Authority(VRA), Alhaji Mohammed Erzuah Siam, and a member of the Builsa District Water and Sanitation Team, Mr Moses Awarikaro, confirmed the incidents to the Daily Graphic after a tour of some communities to sensitise residents to the need to vacate the area in view of the impending spillage of water from the Bagre Dam.
Alhaji Erzuah said the dead were yet to be identified and that a number of homes, farms, food and livestock had also been destroyed by the rains.
He said some rivers such as the Sisilli were full and could overflow their banks any time soon. However, while most people had demonstrated their readiness to move to higher grounds, others were reluctant to evacuate because of their farmlands.
“Although the message has gone round, the cooperation is not there,” Alhaji Erzuah said.
He said at Kulungungu, the VRA team observed that the recently constructed embankment supporting the Bailey bridge that linked Ghana with neighbouring Sahelian countries like Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali was weak and that any large inflow of water could lead to the collapse of the bridge.
Among the communities visited by the team were Wungu, Arigu, Fio Number 1 and 2, Kpatorigu, Chamma, Saligu, Sapkala, Sakori, Kpasenkpe, Tiya Alavanyo, and Soba Takora, all in the West Mamprusi District.
They have already visited some flood-prone communities in the Upper East Region to sensitise them to the intended spillage.
Ahead of the spillage from the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso, the prayer of some residents in flood-prone communities along the White Volta River is that the spillage should not be accompanied by torrential rains.
According to them, already most rivers that could hold the huge volumes of water were already full following persistent rains being experienced in some parts of the Upper East Region.
They contended that any torrential rains in addition to the expected spillage of huge volumes of water from the Bagre dam could spell doom for them as the expected floods would surpass the one experienced last year.
These sentiments came to light yesterday when the Daily Graphic toured some flood-prone areas to test their readiness for the impending spillage.
Some of the communities toured were Sandema, Zebilla, Bazua Nafgolika and Pwalugu.
It was observed at the Kobore bridge in the Bawku West District and the Pwalugu Bridge in Talensi Nabdam that the river was gradually filling up and the fear was that heavy rains, coupled with the spillage, in the area could result in heavy flooding as happened last year.
One other observation made at Pwalugu was that some maize farmlands close to the river were already submerged in water, while the absence of trees along the river had led to serious erosion and the development of deep gullies along some portions of the river.
At Sandema, one resident told the Daily Graphic that in addition to the public announcement urging people to move to higher grounds to avert danger, he was expecting the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) to come out with detailed evacuation measures to aid people, should the floods occur.
At Nafgolika in the Bawku Municipality, Mr Thomas Ndebugre, a farmer who had cultivated maize along the White Volta, said although he was aware of the possible dangers, he continued to farm near the banks of the river because the land there was fertile.
He, however, said he was ready to discontinue farming near the bank of the river on condition that he was assisted with inputs to farm far away from the river bank.
At Binduri, also in the Bawku Municipality, the assemblymember for the area, Madam Beatrice Dahamani, told the Daily Graphic that she had intensified her education programme to warn the people on the potential danger in trying to cross the river on Thursday.
At a meeting with the Deputy Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, Alhaji Ahmed Awudu Yirimeah at Sandema, the district capital, Mr Awarikaro added that the affected communities included Nyansa, Kandem, Abiyere, Kore, Tankunsa, Kaasa, Zondem and Siniesi.
The deputy minister is on a tour of the Upper East Region to inspect the extent of work being executed under the Northern Floods Reconstruction Programme.