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Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has visited the victims of the recent devastating floods in the Upper East region.
Floods, caused by the opening of the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso and days of torrential rains in northern Ghana, have resulted in the death of 10 people, the destruction of large hectares of farmland and hundreds of head of cattle, and washed away parts of some major roads, cutting off some communities.
Some of the affected areas include Somaaman, Sakapa, Bluima, Katigri, Pwalugu, and Bolga.
Dr Bawumia, who is on a working tour of the northern regions of Ghana, booked his original program for his first day in the Upper East Region on Thursday 10 September 2020, to tour the affected areas and the people to see first-hand the magnitude of the disaster.
Speaking in Anateem, where some families are temporarily housed, Dr. Bawumia expressed the government’s condolences to the families of the ten people who died and to the farmers who lost their livestock and crops.
“It is a disaster and a very sad situation. Unfortunately we have lost their lives, about ten people, they have told me, have lost their lives. On behalf of the President, I express the government’s sympathy to the families of the victims,” said the Vice President .
Dr. Bawumia added: “A lot of farmers have lost their livestock and their crops. They have lost a lot of their crops and for farmers, when you lose your crop, that’s a year’s income, so we have to find a way. to protect these farmers, they have to find a way to bring relief to farmers to help them. “
Addressing the press during an assessment visit to the Kubore Zebila-Bawku highway, which has seen parts washed away by the heavy flooding, Dr. Bawumia said that the flooding has devastated communities for years and there must be a permanent solution, therefore the Akufo-Addo government’s decision to invest massively in the Pwalugu Dam to help address the problem.
“At the end of the day, this is a problem that we have been experiencing year after year and the question that I am sure is on every Ghanaian’s mind is what are we doing about it?” Dr. Bawumia said.
“Basically we have understood that to fundamentally address this problem, we must have flood control in the context of the Pwalugu dam.
“That is the most important antidote to all of these. That is why we have moved to secure the Pwalugu dam project, and this project is the largest dam project we have in the northern region.”
“It is the largest investment in northern Ghana since independence, it is around a billion dollars and the contractors are in place.”
The vice president said that prior to the flood, contractors had already started cleaning the site down to the river.
He added that contractors would have to wait for the waters to recede and then divert it for work to continue.
On the washing of parts of the Kubore highway that links Bolga and Bawku, the vice president said the Ghana Highway Authority is waiting for the water to recede before contractors move to the site to repair the bridge and reconnect the highway. .
The Vice President was accompanied by the Regional Minister of the Upper East, Patience Tangoba Abayege, the Minister of the Interior Ambrose Derry, the Vice Minister of Roads and Highways Anthony Abayifa Karbo, as well as the National and Regional Directors of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO ).
NADMO officials, led by Director General Eric Nana Agyeman-Prempeh, delivered relief items to those affected.
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