FLOOD VICTIMS ADVISED TO RELOCATE TO SAFER GROUNDS (BACK PAGE, NOV 27, 2010)

THE Vice President, Mr John Dramani Mahama has implored persons who were displaced by floods in parts of the three northern regions to take advantage of the provision of building materials to rebuild their homes on higher grounds.
According to him, the predicament that befell the people this year could repeat itself in worse forms in subsequent years if they continued to live closer to the banks of the Volta Rivers and their tributaries.
Mr Mahama made these remarks in Kikale, a community in the Central Gonja district of the Northern Region, when he led a delegation of government officials and officers from the United Nations allied bodies to set in motion the distribution of food items to victims of the recent floods in the north.
The food items, which comprised maize, beans, vegetable oil and salt, have been provided by the World Food Programme (WFP) as part of a short-term response to mitigate the suffering of the people.
The relief operation is targeting about 25,000 people in various parts of the country who are in urgent need of assistance and it is valued at US$300,000.
Each household is expected to receive a daily ration that consists of 63kg of maize, 9kg of beans, 3.7kg of vegetable oil and 0.75kg of iodised salt for a period of 30 days.
The Vice President, who flew to Kikale in a helicopter after kick-starting a similar distribution exercise in Janga in the West Mamprusi district, commended the WFP for its swift response to the flood disaster.
He cautioned the people not to repeat the same mistakes that they had made in the past, which had increased their vulnerability to floods.
“It is time you resettled on safer grounds so as to protect yourselves from any future disasters that may destabilise your lives once more,” he stated.
Mr Mahama said the provision of the relief items followed an earlier assessment conducted by the government and its donor partners on the magnitude of the destruction caused by the floods and the nature of emergency response needed.
“After meeting with our partners, we pulled our resources together and it amounted to a total of US$5m, which we would use for both emergency response and reconstruction purposes,” he explained.
The Country Director of the WFP, Mr Ismail Omer said the relief operation was meant to address the short-term needs of those affected by floods and that the WFP will double its efforts to support the government’s long-term rehabilitation programmes.
“These programmes will focus on rebuilding the livers of those who have lost all of their property, including farms and food stocks,” he mentioned.
Mr Omer also revealed that the WFP will continue to work towards its longer-term goals of mitigating the effects of climate change and perennial flooding in the country.
“This will include collaboration with the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) and other partners on food-for-work activities, which provide food rations in exchange for work done with the aim of slowing soil erosion and land degradation in flood-affected areas,” he stated.