Bagre Dam spillage: We don’t have enough relief items, move to higher grounds – NaDMO urges residents

The National Disaster Management Organization (NaDMO) says it does not have enough relief items to support all persons likely to be displaced by the spillage of the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso.

This follows an announcement by the Burkinabe power utility authority, SONABEL, that the exercise will commence on Monday, August 19.

In the memo which has since gone viral on social media, management called for the relocation of persons in flood prone areas.

But speaking to JoyNews, the West Gonja Municipal NADMO Director, Adam Bavug explained that although efforts are being made to relocate persons from the red zones, his outfit does not have enough relief items to support all person who are likely to be displaced

“For now, we are asking them to leave these dangerous areas. Our top most priority for now is to let these people leave these areas. We are going to monitor those that will be leaving and based on that – if it is 10, 100 or 50 – based on this number whatever support we have, we are going to give to those people.

“If it is not adequate to be able to serve all the people then we will ask for assistance from the district assemblies and head office so they come to our aid

“But it is true that we do not have enough resources to be able to help all these people when it hits us hard”.

Meanwhile, some Peasant farmers in the Upper East region say they are preparing to scale up sensitization for many of their colleagues who would suffer significant crop loses as a result of the flooding that may be associated with the spillage of the Bare Dam.

According to Eziekel Atanga Azure, who is the organiser for the Peasant Farmers Association in Bawku West, numerous calls on government to intervene have proven futile, hence the decision to take matters into their own hands.

“We were thinking that government will come in to see how to elevate our plight but we have seen that every year, the effect is the same.

“So we have advised ourselves. We know that since we have been complaining and asking government to intervene and it is not helping we have to see how we can sensitize our farmers to get them out of that place”.