The National Disaster Management Organization (NaDMO) is struggling to provide sufficient relief items as the spillage from the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso threatens to displace numerous residents.
This follows Burkinabe power utility authority, SONABEL, announcement that the spillage will begin on Monday, August 19, prompting NaDMO to urgently advise those in flood-prone areas to move to higher grounds.
West Gonja Municipal NADMO Director, Adam Bavug, confirmed the organization’s limited capacity to support all potential evacuees. Speaking in an interview, Bavug emphasized the immediate priority is the relocation of individuals from hazardous zones. “For now, we are asking them to leave these dangerous areas. Our top most priority for now is to let these people leave these areas.
We are going to monitor those that will be leaving and based on that – if it is 10, 100 or 50 – based on this number whatever support we have, we are going to give to those people,” he stated.
Bavug also noted that if the resources available are insufficient, they will seek assistance from district assemblies and their head office.
In response to the crisis, peasant farmers in the Upper East region are preparing their own measures to address potential crop losses.
Eziekel Atanga Azure, organizer for the Peasant Farmers Association in Bawku West, criticized the government’s lack of intervention and highlighted their proactive approach.
“We were thinking that government will come in to see how to elevate our plight but we have seen that every year, the effect is the same.
So we have advised ourselves. We know that since we have been complaining and asking government to intervene and it is not helping we have to see how we can sensitize our farmers to get them out of that place,” Azure said.
