A 24-hour torrential rain in the Upper West Region has left some parts of the region submerged in flood water with about 45 kilometres of asphalted road at different sections of the region washed away and replaced with deep pits containing large volumes of water.
The rain started onThursday evening and persisted till Friday evening and continued on Saturday afternoon, after taking a breather in the morning.
The water washed away major culverts along the Wa-Nadowli and Nadowli -Jirapa/Lawra highways respectively as well as the Tumu-Bolgatanga stretch and some other feeder roads that connected some communities and districts.
About 80 communities were cut off from the regional capital, Wa, whereas over 20 structures have collapsed in Nadowli. Several acres of farmlands have also been submerged in water posing threat to the young crops that were springing up.
Passengers travelling from Wa and other parts of the country to other districts along affected areas such as Lawra, Nandom, Nadowli-Kaleo among others were left stranded at Serepkere in the Nadowli-Kaleo District on Friday and Saturday respectively at where the highway was badly affected.
Confirming the extent of damage to the Ghanaian Times at Wa on Sunday, the Regional Director for the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr Mustapha Ahmed said the Nadowli-Kaleo District was worst hit by the incident, saying although they were unable to quantify the extent of damage, a number of farmlands had been submerged in the water.
He explained that it was difficult to immediately identify the victims as most of them in their bid to escape the flood, fled to the district capital, Nadowli to lodge with relatives and friends.
“What we did immediately was to look for alternative routes for the passengers who were stranded at the areas where the road had been cut off, first we brought them back to Wa and surveyed other areas for them to commute,” he explained but said heavy-duty trucks travelling to Burkina Faso and other areas were still stranded as they could not use those routes.
“Even though using these new routes have further prolonged the journey of travellers, that is the only option we have now and we must make use of it,” he said.
The Director indicated that together with the Regional Minister, Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, and some road engineers, they toured affected areas in a helicopter on Saturday but said they could not even land in any of the affected communities as the water levels were still high at the time.
“NADMO have a lot of supply for flood victims because I took delivery of items from the national office last week but the problem is how to reach affected areas or even identify the people for now. We will have to continue exploring the extent of damage to know what concrete steps to take,” he explained.
He however stressed that it was necessary for residents in low-lying areas to move to safer areas in order to prevent further harm.
“We are still expecting a lot more rain and a possible spillage of the Bagre dam, so we need people to take precaution and move to safer zones especially when there are no farms for them to even work because of the flood,” he added.
