144,000 displaced by floods in north

A month of floods in last August and September in northern Ghana has displaced nearly 144,000 people and destroyed some 13,000 houses, the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) - the state agency responsible for disaster relief - reported. The floods, which now threaten the south of the country, also swamped 68,000 acres (about 27,519 hectares) of farmland, according to an 18-member team that assessed the area from 15-25 September, and which included navy and air force personnel, engineers and health, construction and hydrometeorological specialists. “Nearly 120,000 are displaced in the Northern Region, some 15,000 in Upper West Region and just over 9,000 in Upper East Region,” team leader Kofi Portuphy, NADMO’s National Coordinator, told IRIN. “Many farms and homes are still underwater.” Portuphy said initial news reports of more than 320,000 being made homeless referred to those who were “under threat” but the assessment revealed that they were not all subsequently displaced. Thirteen people drowned or were killed when their homes collapsed and 43 died from cholera, according to NADMO’s report. Portuphy said that aid agencies were providing medical assistance, food and non-food aid to affected populations in the north. In addition to providing emergency relief to those affected by the flooding, NADMO has recommended that farmers be resettled. Damaged dams, roads and bridges should be rebuilt and the resurgence of blackflies - aphids which infest beans, sugar beet and other plants - should be checked. The Black Volta River in the Brong-Ahafo region in central Ghana is now in flood and this is a cause for concern, Portuphy added. “Standby teams are in place to evacuate those living on the banks of Lake Volta,” he said.