Aid needed for 300,000 flood victims

Plans are being made to provide medicines, water, food and shelter, in order of priority, to 300,000 flood victims in five of Ghana’s 10 regions, OCHA said in a situation report of 2 November. It said that after a joint multi-disciplinary team completes a needs assessment survey which it would begin this week, “details on quantity and duration of the emergency operation are expected to become available”. However, OCHA said that at the end of October some 290,000 people were thought displaced and 50 dead from the floods in the Upper West, Upper East, Northern Regions and parts of Brong Ahafo and Volta Regions. The rain-caused floods also destroyed 31,000 homes and 117,000 acres (47,350 hectares) of farmland, and most health posts, schools and other public facilities no longer function. Ghana’s National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) is leading relief operations. The government, OCHA said, has already spent US $5 million providing food, medicines and non-food items to the victims. Six UN agencies are engaged in the international emergency response, while the Swedish aid agency, SIDA, is to give medical help, shelter and food to the affected population.