Some farmers living along the tributaries of the White Volta in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region are not happy with the short notice given them to leave their farm houses due to the spilling of excess water from the dam in Burkina Faso.
Emmanuel Bagre is a farmer who cultivates maize, millet and rice along the White Volta in the Bawku West District.
He is very likely to be affected severely with the water level increases and take over his land. He is among farmers who planted their crops late, due to the late rainfall in the region.
It is an annual occurrence, but the farmers say they are usually informed about the spillage weeks before the opening of the dam, which is on the Bagre River. The spillways are expected to be opened today, August 20, and will take three days to have effect in Ghana.
Usually, water from two rivers in Burkina Faso – Bagre (White Volta) – and another connected to the Red Volta enter Ghana during the rainy season. In the past the effect had been severe but subsided when a dam was created on the Bagre River.
This year, due to the heavy rains upstream there is so much water running through the waterways connected to the Red Volta; and with the spillage from the Bagre Dam, the Galaka community in the Bawku West District will swell bigger and soon increase the wideness of the White Volta.
Some 63 communities in four districts in the region – Bawku West and East, Binduri and Talensi – are very likely to be affected if the downpours in the region continue, especially when the spillage occurs.
This year’s spillage comes at a time farm products are yet to yield due to delayed rains; and with the spillage, many acres of farms, especially those close to the waterways, will be affected and wouldn’t be able to yield any food.
The Regional Coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Alfred Saawug, in a media interview, disclosed that some education was being done by the various zonal coordinators to get the farmers and herdsmen to stay away from the waterways.
If any disaster occurs after the opening of the Bagre Dam this weekend, the NADMO will have to stock and give out more food items to fill the gap that will be created by the farmers’ inability to harvest their crops before the flooding.
FROM EBO BRUCE-QUANSAH, Pwualugu