Buipe flood victims queue for relief items (PAGE 35, JAN 31, 2011)

Nurudeen Salifu, Buipe

HUNDREDS of people from the Central Gonja District in the Northern Region continue to receive relief items being provided by various organisations and institutions many weeks after the floods.
A number of the victims had their houses submerged and property running into thousands of Ghana cedis destroyed in last October’s disaster as a result of the heavy rains and the opening of the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso making the Black Volta overflow its banks.
Last week, the Ghana Red Cross Society distributed relief items worth US$250,000 to about 6,000 vulnerable households in the Central Gonja and West Mamprusi Districts where some of the worst flood-affected communities were located.
Whilst the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies provided US$200,000 for the provision of non-food items, the Chinese Red Cross provided US$50,000 for the supply of food items.
There was a glimmer of hope for the distressed persons as they waited anxiously to receive their rations.
Having been displaced and incapacitated from fending for themselves, these vulnerable people could not hide their excitement as each family picked home a maxi bag of maize and rice, together with cooking oil.
Although the items were not enough for each of the affected families, a 40-year-old mother of seven, Ms Janet Ashiagbor, whose rented compound house collapsed, said “it would provide us some temporary relief whilst we try to rebuild our lives.”
During the distribution of the items, the acting Secretary General of the Ghana Red Cross Society, Mr Samuel Kofi Addo told the Daily Graphic that the agency was targeting 1000 families to benefit from the food aid, which began from January 19 to 21, 2011.
“Earlier, we undertook the distribution of the non-food items to about 5,000 families,” he stated.
Mr Addo said the families, which were selected to benefit from the relief items, were those who had been identified to be more vulnerable, adding that “these families comprise pregnant women, lactating mothers, children and the elderly”.
In a release on the distribution exercise, the Red Cross explained that its response to the flood disaster was categorised into phases.
The first phase, it stated, was the search and rescue phase where with the help of its volunteer corps, the Red Cross rescued and evacuated victims of the disaster to safety.
Whilst the second phase involved the assessment and registration of victims, the third phase, termed the “recovery phase”, was the point at which relief items were being provided for the victims.
The secretary-general told the paper that a fourth phase would be undertaken, which would involve the deployment of some volunteers to stay in the communities and sensitise people to various ways of observing proper sanitation and preventing the outbreak of diseases.
In October, last year, 55 communities in the district, including parts of the district capital, Buipe, were inundated following the overflow of the Volta Rivers.
Two persons died as a result of the floods and over 25,000 people, mostly women and children, were displaced. The number of houses which were submerged were estimated at 4,000.
To date, most of the displaced persons are yet to be resettled as the water level is receding slowly.
Whilst many victims have relocated to other areas to live with friends and relatives, others are still staying at the temporary camps provided by the assembly.