The water level in the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso is fast reaching the spillage mark. Authorities at SONABEL, the power utility of Burkina Faso, always spilled excess water from the dam whenever it reached 235 meters.
Following recent heavy rainfalls in neighbouring Burkina Faso, A1 NEWS has gathered that the water level as of Wednesday August 15 was 232.82 meters, representing 70% increase in water volume. This means that with just an increase of 2.18 meters of water volume would leave SONABEL with no option than to spill the dam.
Deputy Regional NADMO Coordinator in charge of operations in the Upper East Region, Paul Wooma, who confirmed this on A1 Radio’s major news at 2:00pm Thursday August 15, said as part of awareness drive, the organisation in partnership with the Ghana Red Cross Society has provided public sensitisation and education to communities along the White Volta River in the region to ensure dwellers and farmers along the likely areas to be affected by a possible spillage stayed away from danger.
Meanwhile, large number of farmlands has been flooded following recent rains in the region.
According to Mr. Wooma, NADMO has received reports from four districts in the region which have been affected by flooding. He explained that in the Bawku Municipality, five communities with a total number of 250 farmers and 200 acres were affected.
In the Bawku West district, 13 communities, 598 farmers with 796 acres of farmlands were affected. Seven communities, 219 farmers and 44 acres of farmlands were affected in the Pusiga district while in Talensi district, 11 communities, 717 farmers 2482 acres affected. Major crops affected in all these communities included maize, millet, groundnuts, yellow melon, sorghum, rice and vegetables.
On what relief the organisation was going to support the victims with, Mr. Wooma the assessment reports have been submitted to the national office of NADMO and was discussing with its relevant stakeholders to support in giving relief to the victims.
The Bagre Dam was constructed in 1992 over the White Volta River in the village of Bagre.
Spillage of the dam has since become a perennial problem leaving many communities along the White Volta River especially in Northern and Upper East Regions of Ghana flooded for weeks. This has often occurred between August and September thus leading to loss of human lives, livestock and crops.
Source: A1 Radioonline.com|101.1FM|William Nlanjerbor JALULAH
