The situation has been compounded with heavy rains in the area last Thursday night.Some residents of the district whose farms have been submerged, however, said no casualties had been recorded.
Some of the farmers told the Daily Graphic yesterday that their farmlands had been washed away by floods due to the spillage and heavy rains last Thursday night.
500 farmers
A farmer in the Timonde community in the Bawku West District, Mr Francis Ayaba, said in his community about 500 farmers had been affected by the floods.
He explained that he and his father, for instance, can no longer go to their farms because they fear they may drown.
Mr Ayaba said together, they had nine acres of farms which had been submerged in water. They cultivated maize, groundnut, millet and beans.
Their animals were, however, not affected by the flood because they heeded NADMO’s advice to move them to higher plains.
One other farmer, Mr Silas Atiah, said his 150-acre farm where he had cultivated maize, millet, groundnuts, soyabeans, tomatoes and pepper, had been destroyed, leaving only the livestock he was rearing.
According to him, he was able to salvage the animals because he had earlier been advised by a NADMO team during one of their sensitisation programmes to move the animals onto higher grounds.
Mr Atiah appealed to NADMO to provide them with foodstuffs as part of the relief items in such disasters.
Another farmer at Pwalugu in the Talensi District, Mr Iddrisu Baba, who cultivates yellow melon, maize and pepper, however, stated that his farmland had been spared although he had heard that his colleagues in the Bawku West District had started experiencing the effects of the spillage.
NADMO
The Regional Director of NADMO, Mr Jerry Asamani, for his part, stated that for now the organisation’s preliminary assessment was that although some farmlands had been submerged, they were yet to quantify the level of destruction.
He explained that the organisation had set up “a standard operational procedure on how to collate data and other disasters being experienced.”
He noted that the situation was being monitored closely, and added that the peak season where the level of destruction had clear and visible adverse effects on residents was usually recorded in early September.
Preparedness
Mr Asamani indicated that NADMO was prepared to handle the disaster as it had in stock a number of relief items such as rice, cooking oil, blankets, mosquito nets, machetes, mattresses and reflectors.
He expressed the hope that the spillage would not cause much havoc though the region was prepared to handle the situation.
Northern Region
From Tamale, Samuel Duodu reports that the Northern Regional Secretariat of NADMO has intensified sensitisation and monitoring in communities identified to be lying along the flood zones following the spillage of the Bagre Dam in neighbouring Burkina Faso.
The flood-prone areas identified are Kumbungu and Tolon districts and the Savelugu municipality that have communities along the tributaries of the White Volta.
The Northern Regional NADMO Director of Operations, Mr Abu Adam, who stated this in an interview with the Daily Graphic, said the region was yet to be hit by the floods.
He said through the sensitisation in the flood-prone communities residents, especially fishermen and farmers who lived along the tributaries, had moved to higher grounds, while some havens had also been identified in the communities in case they were overwhelmed.
He said the regional emergency response teams working at the community, zonal to district levels were active and prepared to respond adequately when the need arose.
"As of now, we have not heard about any flooding but as soon as it happens we are on the ground to respond adequately,” he stated.
Mr Adam, however, called for the restocking of relief items in the region to mitigate the impact in case the floods occurred.
He said in Tamale, the regional capital, got flooded when there were torrential rains but did not get affected by the Bagre Dam spillage.
Upper West
In the Upper West Region, the Regional Director of NADMO, Mr Mustapha Ahmed, said adequate measures had been put in place to ensure that every household was safe, reports Emmanuel Modey, Wa.
He said so far while education had been intensified in all the five flood-prone district, some 30 operation officers had completed training in pre-disaster programme at Tamale in the Northern Region. That, he said, was to enhance the rescue capabilities in the regions that bear the impact of the Bagre dam spillage.
The flood-prone districts are Wa East, Wa West, Nandom, Nadowli-Kaleo and Lawra, he said.
Mr Mustapha said the spillage had not caused any casualty, especially around the Black Volta River basin where majority of farms were found.
Operation Thunderbolt
Currently, there is an ongoing training for selected staff of NADMO under “Operation Thunderbolt 2020,” which is being used to prepare the personnel for the task ahead.
A simulation exercise is also being held for selected staff of the organisation at the Vea dam.
A visit by the Daily Graphic to the simulation site saw a search and rescue team on the ground training staff of the organisation on how to perform rescue operations using boats in preparation for any eventuality.
There had already been community sensitisation on the need for people to take precautionary measures and move to higher grounds, and relocate to places such as schools and mosques so as to avoid any casualties.
Spillage
Information sent to NADMO from Sonabel, the agency responsible for the management of the Bagre and Kompienga dams, indicated that the volumes of spilled water could be heavier this year.
The upstream level of the Bagre Dam as of Tuesday, August 11, 2020 was 234.97 metres. The rate of filling is 99.60 per cent compared to 62.44 per cent on the same date in 2019.
The spill gates have been opened, with an average discharge/flow of 76.50 cubic metres per second as of August 10, this year.
For the Kompienga Dam, the upstream level as of Monday, August 10, 2020 was 172.54 metres. The rate of filling is 39.26 per cent compared to 28.76 per cent on the same date in 2019.
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