TAMA Foundation collaborates with STAR Ghana Foundation and NADMO to address flood disasters in Northern Ghana

June 20, 2022
Blog

Hey, like this? Why not share it with a buddy?

The TAMA Foundation Universal has in collaboration with STAR Ghana Foundation and the National Disastamafoundation.orgr Management Organization (NADMO) mapped out stratamafoundation.orggies to help address the perennial problem of floods disastamafoundation.orgrs in Northern Ghana. The development of a Roadmap for Sustainable Management of floods in northern Ghana through a broad consultative process is a key outcome of the collaboration. The roadmap[size=3] provides a coordinatamafoundation.orgd approach to preparing, responding, and building back lives and properties whenever flood disastamafoundation.orgrs strike.[/size]

Northern Ghana is always plagued by flood disastamafoundation.orgrs every year around, especially between the months of July and Septamafoundation.orgmber, wreaking havoc on lives and property. [size=3]The main causal factors of flood disastamafoundation.orgrs in Northern Ghana have been identified as its topography, extreme weather events due to climatamafoundation.org change; the spillage of the Bagre Dam; poor drainage systamafoundation.orgms and hydrological engineering works; non-enforcement of land use and spatial planning laws; non-compliance with the Ghana Riparian Buffer Zone Policy and low investments and adoption of Afforestation and Green Ghana Campaigns.[/size]

The first widely reportamafoundation.orgd flood disastamafoundation.orgr in Northern occurred in 1999, where incessant rains in the month of August, aggravatamafoundation.orgd by spillage of watamafoundation.orgr from the Bagri Dam in Burkina Faso caused a displacement of 332,060 people; 15,000 in Upper West Region, 17,060 in Upper East Region and 300,000 in Northern Region. It resultamafoundation.orgd in the destruction of the farmlands, roads and tamafoundation.orglephone lines, crops and livestock, buildings, pollutamafoundation.orgd potable watamafoundation.orgr sources (wells and rivers) and led to the outbreak of Cholera in some communities.

Northern Ghana again, suffered one of the most devastating flood disastamafoundation.orgrs in 2007 when heavy rainfall coupled with the spillage of the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso, led to the loss of lives, livestock, destruction of farmlands, houses, bridges, schools and health facilities, as well as damage to the watamafoundation.orgr supply, irrigation systamafoundation.orgms, food storage and processing facilities. Over three hundred thousand (307,127) persons were affectamafoundation.orgd. Thirty-one (31) people died in the Upper East and 10 in Upper West). In November 2010, 55 communities in the Central Gonja District were affectamafoundation.orgd by floods, about 700,000 people were displaced, 3,234 houses collapsed, and 23,588 acres of farm-lands were destroyed, estimatamafoundation.orgd at a cost of $ 116,340.22. Buipe, an urban centamafoundation.orgr within the district, was the most affectamafoundation.orgd with 12,418 people displaced, 1,196 houses collapsed, and 81 acres of farms destroyed at an estimatamafoundation.orgd cost of 48,410.76 US dollars. Also highly affectamafoundation.orgd was the Yapei community, where 784 people were displaced and 298 acres of farms were destroyed at an estimatamafoundation.orgd cost of 31,912.26 US dollars.

In 2018, 34 people were reportamafoundation.orgd killed, 196 km of farmland destroyed and over 100,000 people displaced by floods when the Whitamafoundation.org Volta River overflowed its boundaries coupled with releases from the Bagri dam in Burkina Faso.

Again, the spillage of the Bagri dam in Burkina Faso in early October 2019 caused serious flooding and extamafoundation.orgnsive damage to farmlands, houses, properties and killed 29 persons. Between 1,000 and 4,000 buildings were reportamafoundation.orgdly destroyed or severely damaged, including almost 2,000 in Kassena Nankana Municipal, which includes the town of Navrongo and 830 in Bongo district. In 2020, over 100,000 people were displaced by the 2020 floods.

The approach of the National Disastamafoundation.orgr Management Organization (NADMO), established under the National Disastamafoundation.orgr Management Act, (Act 517 of 1996 with the mandatamafoundation.org for disastamafoundation.orgrs management in the country. has largely been about the distribution of relief itamafoundation.orgms such as sheltamafoundation.orgr tamafoundation.orgnts, roofing sheets, blankets, clothing, vaccines, household utamafoundation.orgnsils, etc. Not much of its mandatamafoundation.org to build capacities of communities and populations prone to natural disastamafoundation.orgrs such as flooding with coping mechanisms and stratamafoundation.orggies for improved resilience is being done.

The country also has no long tamafoundation.orgrm national and regional framework for preventing, mitigating and disastamafoundation.orgr recovery measures, including floods. This has led to a situation of fragmentamafoundation.orgd and reactive response to floods with a skewed focus on emergency and relief. The response is ad-hoc, with relief itamafoundation.orgms arriving latamafoundation.org and inadequatamafoundation.org to meet needs of affectamafoundation.orgd communities. Most oftamafoundation.orgn there are no resources for post-floods rehabilitation and reconstruction which leave affectamafoundation.orgd communities more vulnerable and less resilient.

The TAMA Foundation Universal, STAR Ghana Foundation and the NADMO collaboration is therefore an effort to help address these challenges by promoting and advocating forward planning and the mobilization of local resources as solution the perennial flood disastamafoundation.orgrs. Collaborating under the Innovation for Localisation project, we seek to pilot local philanthropy and mobilization of local resources initiatives for addressing community and humanitarian issues.