The Chief Of Staff of Ghana Madam Akosua Frema Osei Opare has assured victims of the Buipe flooding situation who are currently homeless and sleeping in temporal tents and classrooms in Buipe in the Central Gonja District of the Savannah Region that government is doing it’s best to come to their aid.
Speaking at Buipe on Wednesday 1st November, 2023, during a visit by the government’s inter-ministrerial committee on floods, Madam Frema who chairs the committee assured the victims that resources are being mobilised by the government to come to their aid adding that government is not relenting on its efforts to mitigate the impact of the floods on residents for which reason it is providing essential items to communities that have been adversely impacted.
She said;
“I want to assure all of you that we are not relenting in any of our efforts. Your safety is our priority. As the President said during the pandemic, we know how to restore the economy, what we don’t know is how to bring back lives”.
The Chief of Staff added that;.
“We crave your indulgence to work in tandem with government and the various authorities assigned and also comply with the directives given so that everyone will be safe and sound. In addition, all humanitarian efforts are being doubled to give some level of comfort to affected persons while we work on full restoration of livelihoods and property”.
Some relief items including toiletries, bags of rice and sugar, medications, plastic buckets with bowls, mattresses and mats, canned foods, and drinking water were handed over to the victims by the Government’s Inter ministerial committee.
The Savannah Regional Minister Mr Muhazu Saeed Jibril in an address said some 5,365 people have been displaced while several structures including houses, schools and health facilities have been submerged in the Region with the Central Gonja district as the worst hit district in the region.
He mentioned further that the East Gonja Municipality, is also affected including Salaga, capital of the Municipality and other surrounding communities such as Makango, Kitoe and Kafaba stressing that in total, there are 1,902 victims, 421 houses, and 99 acres of farmland affected by the overflow of the Black Volta.
The Savannah Regional Minister said the Busunu Community in the West Gonja Municipality was seriously hit with almost half of the houses submerged in water and that victims include women and children with properties worth thousands of Ghana Cedis destroyed.
Mr Muhazu thanked government for listening to the cries of flood victims in the Savannah Region just as it did with flood victims downstream the Akosombo dam affected by the controlled spillage of the dam emphasizing that the government’s intervention couldn’t have come at a better time.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Damongo and Minister for Lands and Natural Resources Hon. Samuel Abu Jinapor on his part admonished the people of Buipe and the Savannah Region to continue to have faith in the Akufo-Addo-led administration to provide for the basic needs of victims in these times.
He said the government will do everything it can to make sure the victims have access to potable drinking water, and food and maintain proper sanitation.
Meanwhile, Paramount chief of the Buipe Traditional Area of Gonja, Buipewura Abdulai Jinapor (I) has thanked the team for visiting his traditional area in this trying times. He also disclosed to the team that he has allocated over 100 acres of land to permanently relocate the victims from the Buipe bridge area.
Other government officials that accompanied the Chief of Staff to Buipe included the Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Hon Mavis Hawa Koomson, the Minister of Roads and Highways, Hon Kwesi Amoako-Attah, the Minister for Works and Housing, Hon Francis Asenso Boakye, the Deputy Minister for Energy, Herbert Krappa and the Heads of key sector Agencies.
Source: nkilgifmonline.com
