The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has initiated an emergency response strategy to mitigate the impact of floods and safeguard affected communities in the wake of the spillage of excess water from the Bagre and Kompienga dams in Burkina Faso.
It includes setting up safe havens across all flood-prone areas to accommodate all displaced individuals. Consequently, drone services have been deployed to deliver essential supplies to communities that would be cut off by floodwaters.
Emergency Operations
The North East Regional Director of NADMO, John Kweku Alhassan, told Graphic Online that the organisation had also activated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to streamline and coordinate disaster relief efforts.
“To minimise further loss, NADMO has positioned teams at key vantage points throughout the region to protect lives and property.
“Also, life jackets have been strategically placed at critical locations for residents to access ” he added.
He said they had deployed personnel to all lowland areas to sensitise the residents to safety procedures and emergency response services.
Mr Alhassan indicated that the floodgate of the Bagre Dam was opened at about 9:30 a.m. last Monday with a discharge rate of 46m3/s.
Checks by Graphic Online indicate that so far, the impact of the spillage is yet to be felt in the lowland areas. However, some residents were bracing themselves in anticipation of the disaster.
Background
SONABEL, the agency that manages the Bagre and Kompienga dam last Friday announced the spillage of excess water from the dams.
The exercise, which commenced on Monday, August 19, followed the rapid rising of the upstream level of the two dams in Burkina Faso.
The spillage of the dams, which has become an annual ritual, is a controlled operation aimed at preventing any potential damage to the infrastructure of the dam.
It leaves communities along the White and Black Volta in the Northern, North East, Upper East and Savannah regions at their wit’s end.
In the past years, many lives have been lost while large tracts of farmlands and property running into millions of Ghana cedis have been destroyed by the floods.
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