The Ghana Red Cross Society (GRCS) has intensified its safety education in the Upper West Region.
The Society is encouraging all persons living in low lying areas to vacate their homes and move to safety with their families.
For those who’s houses may have been partially damaged, the Society is asking that they seek shelter within social centres like school buildings, churches and mosques as well as other well constructed social spaces available.
Meanwhile, GRCS has also begun installing family sized tents for persons whose buildings have collapsed due to the intensive rains in the Upper West Region.
For persons whose buildings have partially collapsed, the society is using shelter kits to temporarily patch the buildings to allow families continue to utilize them.
The National Disaster Manager of the Ghana Red Cross Society, Jonathan Hope people should not be left to deal with the harsh conditions of the weather without support.
This is why the Society together with the Swiss Red Cross Society SRCS and the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), has undertaken a rapid assessment of situation in the Upper West Region.
The National Disaster Manager said the assessment would inform the Society’s line of support to persons who have been severely affected by the rains, particularly in the Nadowli-Kaleo District, the Daffiama-Bussie-Issa (DBI) District and the Wa East District.
He said this when he was speaking to A1 Radio’s Upper West Regional Correspondent at Wa.
“When we went to the communities, based on the interviews we had with the people, they have lost everything. For such people, we have to think about their livelihoods,” he said.
Mr. Hope was however worried that people continued to build with materials like mud which lacked the ability to withstand strong rains. He said during the visit to some affected communities, the team realized that while most of the community members had relocated, others continued to live in partially or completely broken houses.
He said such people were advised to vacate their homes.
The Upper West Regional Manager of the GRCS, Mr Jeremiah Kwaku Afako said the Society has intensified public education on the need for people to seek refuge in safer communities.
He asked that community members who may have challenges with their houses to temporarily live or seek refuge in mosques, churches or properly built social spaces.
“On the grounds, most people have lost a lot of things. These include farmlands and animals. Their livelihoods and shelter have been affected. We were in Nadowli-Kaleo District, we saw houses that have been pulled down by the rain, in the Wa East District, the situation in the same.
In some of the districts we visited, we could not access come of the communities due to the floods. What we can say is that they should try to move to safer spaces. We have the schools, we have the churches and mosques,” he said.
It would be recalled that heavy rains on the 12 and 13th of August caused serious damage to some roads, bridges and farmlands in the Upper West Region.
Reports from all eleven municipalities and districts indicate destruction to property at various degrees.
Meanwhile, work on some roads which were washed away by recent heavy rains in are being fixed.
Four road construction firms have been selected to work on the affected roads.
The firms are P.W. Ghanem, Mawums Limited, Ashcal Investment Limited and Maripoma Enterprise. The Upper West Regional Minister, Dr. Hafiz Bin Salih has led a team to visit some of the sites where work has begun.
Source: A1Radioonline.com| 101.1MHz| Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith| Ghana
