Resident urged to move upstream to avoid flood disaster as authorities in Bagre prepare to spill excess water on Friday.

Story: Benjamin Xornam Glover, Bolgatanga The Upper East Regional Office of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) has activated its flood alert signal following a correspondence received from authorities in Burkina Faso of an imminent spilling of water from the Bagre Dam. NADMO in collaboration with the various Municipal and District Assemblies and the Information Services Department have deployed vans to warm the public to move to safer and higher grounds as the spillage is expected to take place on Friday, August 24, 2012 at 10 O’clock. Speaking to the Daily Graphic at Bolgatanga, the Regional NADMO Coordinator, Mr. Patrick Akake said all the necessary contingencies have been put in place to avoid any casualty should the excess water from Burkina Faso swell up the river and possibly lead to flooding. He advised the people in the areas likely to be affected by the floods, esperaxcilly communities such as Binduri, and Vokop in the Bawku municipality and Sapeliga, Googo, Saka and Bazua in the Bawku West District and Pwalugu in the Talensi District as well as communities in the Northern Regions along the White Volta River to move upstream to avoid any disaster as recorded in the 2007 floods, which destroyed several hectares of farmland, houses and property in the three northern regions and rendered several people homeless. The flooding in the Upper East and Northern regions as a result of water spillage from hydro dams in Burkina Faso is an annual ritual. In 2010, at least 12 lives were lost as a result of people trying to harvest their crops with the aid of canoes and collapsing switch houses following days of heavy rainfall and the opening of the sluice gates of the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso. That same year, dozens of farmlands along the White Volta basin were inundated with water in several communities. In 2007, the death toll from the floods that hit the Upper East Region as a result of the spillage and heavy rains was 31 with as total of 19,621 houses collapsing under the ravages of the floods. That same year, about 90,703 people were rendered homeless. The situation led to the visit of the Parliamentary Committee on Employment, Social Welfare and State Enterprises which suggested to the government to build a multi-purpose dam for both hydro and irrigation for Agriculture in the Upper East Region to harvest the huge volumes of water that occasionally caused flooding and the subsequent loss of lives and properties. It is learnt that the Agence Francaise de Development (AFD) has committed 5.6 million Euros towards feasibility studies of the Pwalugu Multi-purpose dam project to be constructed by the Volta River Authority (VRA). Dr. Joseph Oteng-Adjei, the Minister of Energy who said this in a speech read on his behalf at a stakeholder consultative meeting on the Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam Project on the theme; 'Socio-economic development: The role of the Pwalugu Dam.' Said the dam is expected to incorporate 80 megawatts (MW) of hydroelectric power to boost the local economy upon completion in September 2019. -End- August 22, 2012