Floods destroy houses, farm produce(Tuesday September 18, 2012. Back Page)

Story : Benjamin Xornam Glover, Pwalugu Hundred of farmers in the Talensi District are counting losses after floods swept away their crops. Over the past two weeks, more than 2,000 acres of farmland in the district comprising, maize, soybeans, groundnuts, cowpeas, millet and sorghum farms have been destroyed by the floods following heavy rains which have been pounding the area. The rains coupled with the recent spillage of water from the Bagre dam have continued to cause havoc in the area. Waters from White Volta River have overflowed its banks making residents living near the river and those with farmlands at the banks of the river to panic. Mr. David Adakabla, a commercial farmer and one time Upper East Regional Best farmer who disclosed this during a field visit by the Member of Parliament for the area, Mr. John Tia Akologu said along the banks of the White Volta river alone, about 500 farmers and about a 1,000 acres of farmland with crops were lost due to the heavy rains. “This year’s rain surpasses that of 2007”, he said adding that farmers might have total crop failure in their farms since their farms were submerged. “Most of us farm along the banks of the river because the area is very fertile and require less fertiliser and chemical” He said because, the area experienced normal rainfall last year, most farmers did not anticipate flooding this year, hence the heavy investment into the venture this year only for the produce to be consumed by the floods. Mr Adakabla said on hearing of the warming of the spillage of the Bagre dam, farmers started the evacuating of their produce but the rains came in very heavy flooding their farms adding that the farmers could not do much to salvage their produce. Mr. Adakabla said most of the farmers have been counting huge looses after the rains wash away all the crops and the investment they had put in the farms adding that most of them they rely on the produce from their farms to earn a living. He therefore appealed to the government to aside the distribution of relief items offer farmers logistical and material support such as water pumping machines, fertilisers, to enable them embark on dry season farming to make up for the lose. He also supported the idea by the government to build a multipurpose dam at Pwalugu to harness the flood waters for both irrigation and hydroelectric power generation. Mr. Adakabla also suggested the digging of tube wells in the vast farmlands in the area to ease the farmer’s agony. Mr. John Tia Akologu empathised with the farmers over their lost and said as a long term measure; government will have to fast track the process of constructing the dam at Pwalugu to curtail such annual occurrence. He said the nature of farming in the area is seasonal as such the magnitude of the destruction has a rippling effect on the people. “Our people will be impoverished and will not be able to access so many health facilities because they may not be able to pay health services if they are not on the national health insurance scheme. They will not be able to provide for their children’s need for school.” He said. Mr. Akologu also inspected the Northern Star Tomato Factory to inspect the extent of destruction caused after flood waters inundated parts of the factory premises. He also called on the bereaved families of a 29 year old woman, Ms Cynthia Kadeni, who together with her 14 months old daughter were swept away by floods waters at Datoku as well as another family at Duusi, whose entire house collapsed during the floods. The Talensi Nabdam District Coordinator of NADMO, Mr. Mahama Ken Karza, said in total 992 farmers have been displace in the floods. The situation he said poses a serious threat with respect to food security in the district. He said NADMO has received some relief items which will be distributed to the victims of a flood disaster in the district. -End-