The Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Hon Mavis Hawa Koomson has observed the impact of the Akosombo dam spillage and the flooding situation at Buipe in the Savannah region on the livelihood of fisher folks in the affected communities.
In view of this, she noted the government is working assiduously to mitigate the impact of the disaster and restore the socioeconomic livelihood of the people.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of a visit by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on floods to Buipe in the Central Gonja district to present relief items to flood victims on Wednesday, November 1, the Minister said an assessment of the impact on the fishing sector has been put together and the information will be given to the Chief of Staff who chairs the committee for the swift response of government to support the fishers.
“We have also taken detail of the effects of the flood on our people especially the fisher folks and so we have written a detailed information to the Chief of Staff to see what we can do to bring them back to life in terms of their livelihood” Mrs. Koomson stressed.
Madam Hawa Koomson said her Ministry has also provided about 1,000 bags of rice, boxes of can fish, oil, tin tomatoes, detergents, assorted mineral water and beverages, sanitary materials among others to complement the relief support efforts of the Inter-Ministerial Committee.
In total, the Minister who doubles as the Member of Parliament for Awutu Senya East Constituency disclosed 6million Ghana cedis worth of relief items will be distributed to the affected families in the Volta, Eastern and Savannah regions.
According to her, the most affected victims are women who also form part of the fishing value-chain and plays very critical role in the sector.
She emphasized this effort in the interim is to ameliorate the suffering of the people before the government’s long-term solutions are put in place for full recovery from the havoc that engulfed the communities.
Meanwhile, the Savannah Regional Minister, Muazu Jibril, thanked the Akosua Frema Osei-Opare led Inter-Ministerial Committee for responding to the plight of the affected people.
He revealed about four devastating floods have affected four districts in the region; namely Central Gonja, East Gonja municipal, West Gonja and the North Gonja districts.
Mr. Muazu also disclosed about 400 houses have been submerged, 987 households affected, male adults affected 1,073, female adults 1,130, children 1,456, 4 basic schools closed down, 1 toilet facility destroyed, 5 poultry farms totaling 1000 birds destroyed, 1,600 ruminants carried away, 15 submerged farmlands totaling 1,560 acres, adding Mosques and Churches were not spared.
“What is surprising or strange of this year’s floods in the region is in Buipe in particular, it is that it took everybody unaware because it happened a certain period last year and we were all anticipating that the floods would’ve come in October and we were unaware until the houses were submerged overnight due to heavy rains across the country” the Minister lamented.