Disaster and sustainable livelihood: A case of floods in Tolon District of Ghana

 

Disaster and sustainable livelihood: a case of floods in Tolon District of Ghana

 

 

Sustainable livelihoods methodologies provide a valuable opportunity for combining disaster reduction and development interventions in one unifying approach. Several agencies and donors are currently developing livelihoods-based approaches as bases for policy and practice formulation. The key element of livelihood approaches is that people are the starting point. A livelihoods approach describes how people obtain assets, what they do with them, what gets in their way whilst obtaining them, and who controls the resources on which assets are based. Importantly, it includes the concept that assets buffer households against disasters as well as stresses such as ill-health. Assets are not only physical, for example, land; they are also social, e.g. good relations with neighbors; human, e.g. good entrepreneurial skills; financial, e.g. savings; and political, e.g. having a say in democratic processes.

 

The case of floods in Tolon District of Ghana

 

Flood victims in the Northern Region have appealed to the government and the donor community to assist them with relief items. They said this year’s floods had been the same as that of 2007 but victims had not received much attention in the media to ensure that displaced persons received aid from NADMO and the donor community.    Mr. Ibrahim Azindoo, chairman of Golezole community, one of the flood affected communities in the Tolon/Kumbungu District, made the call on behalf of the affected communities on Monday at Nawuni when he received some relief items from Northern Ghana Aid (NOGAID) for re-distribution. The relief items to the affected communities was based on an assessment tour that NOGAID conducted in eight badly affected communities in the ’overseas’ areas of the Tolon-Kumbungu District but due to logistical constraint the NGO had managed to assist only three communities.

 

Flooding in Upper East, Upper West and Northern regions has killed 20 people and affected 260,000 according to the Government. Victims are spread as follows: Upper east 30,000 affected and 20 deaths; Northern region 227,817 affected and eight deaths; and Upper west 250 affected and four deaths. In view of the magnitude of floods, the Government of Ghana has declared a state of emergency in the three inundated regions September. Damage caused by the floods includes the collapse of nine bridges (six and two in Upper east and in Upper West respectively) and the destruction of water supply systems.

 

Furthermore the losses of an unspecified quantity of cropped farms and livestock as well as the destruction of public infrastructures (schools, roads) have been reported. Access in some areas is a concern due to damaged roads.  There are additional concerns about a possible outbreak of waterborne diseases. Cases of diarrhoea, dysentery and cholera have been reported in the Upper East region. Lessons learnt from the severe floods that led to the displacement of as many as 290,000 people in the north in 1999, indicate that floods are primary vectors for waterborne diseases outbreak such as cholera.

 

The objectives of assessment are to gather further information on the number of people affected and/or displaced and to determine the impact of the floods on the humanitarian situation including food security. The findings will inform joint emergency response strategies and clearly delineate resource mobilization needs to provide food and non-food items to targeted affected populations. The United Nations Resident Coordinator, UNICEF, WFP, UNFPA as well as UNDAC and OCHA teams are part of the mission.

 

The United Nations organizations are evaluating the most effective means to ensure the arrival of a large consignment of emergency supplies including food, and also non-food items such as tents, blankets, tarpaulins and water purification supplies, generators, jerry cans, drinking water filters, mobile sanitary facilities, mosquito nets etc. The Ghanaian Government has provided the Presidential jet plane to the joint assessment team to travel from Accra to Tamale. From Tamale to the affected areas (district level) the mission will travel on two helicopters facilitated by the French Embassy.

 

 

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