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dam-l Ghana floods-relief request/LS
Ghana Asks $21 Million in Wake of Killer Floods
ACCRA, Ghana, October 27, 1999 (ENS) - The
heaviest rains in 30 years have caused severe flooding in three
northern regions in Ghana killing at least
70 people and displacing more than 280,000 persons.
The government has appealed for US$21
million in emergency relief assistance to the international community.
Ghana's
minister of interior Nii Okaija Adamafio, who is also
chairman of
the National Disaster Management Committee,
told diplomats
in Accra on Monday at a briefing that the money
is needed for
"quick emergency rehabilitation" in the affected
Upper West,
Upper East and Northern regions.
Adamafio said
the government has already spent "well beyond"
$5 million on
items like blankets, mats, roofing sheets, food
medicines to
aid the victims, a fraction of the expected cost of
reconstruction.
Of the total
relief money sought, he said, US$6 million would
be for the
immediate rehabilitation of roads, $2 million for
drugs, $1
million for tents and another $6 million for relief
food over the
next six months.
The minister
said 326,036 homes had collapsed and 282,227
people have
been affected. So far, 116,579 acres (47,180
hectares) is
affected. There have been 1,500 reported cases of
cholera and
225 settlements submerged in the Upper East
Region.
Map
of
Ghana
and
surrounding countries of
West Africa. (Map courtesy
CIA World Factbook)
Foreign Minister James Gbeho
told the diplomats that the floods
followed the heaviest rains in the
area in 30 years. The situation has
been worsened by the opening of a
hydroelectric dam spillway in
neighbouring Burkina Faso.
In response to the crisis, Swiss
Ambassador Peter Schwizer said,
the Swiss Red Cross has airlifted
relief items worth the equivalent
of US$142,096 to Ghana.
Each year, West Africa is prone to
devastating floods and 1999 is
worse than usual. All through
July, August and September,
West Africa has experienced
exceptionally heavy rainfall, flash
floods and tropical storms. The
countries which have been most
affected are Benin, Burkina-Faso,
the Gambia, Ghana, Mali,
Mauritania, Niger and Senegal.
The resultant flooding has caused widespread
displacement of people, loss of crops, destruction of property and has
jeopardised livelihoods. Those affected are
mostly subsistence farmers and labourers who eke out a living in difficult
conditions.
© Environment News Service (ENS) 1999. All
Rights Reserved.
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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