Accra (dpa) - Floods in northern Ghana have claimed 47 lives, displaced thousands of people and damaged some 38,200 acres of crops, the Ghana News Agency (GNA) reported Tuesday.

Kofi Portuphy, national coordinator of the national disaster management organisation (NADMO), told a press conference in Accra that most of the deaths were from cholera and diarrhoea caused by use of polluted water.

He said 38,208 acres of crops were destroyed, 653 villages affected, 9,924 houses submerged and 119,839 persons displaced.

Portuphy said several hundred livestock died as a result of the floods following heavy rains and the opening of spillways of two dams in Burkina Faso, Ghana's northern neighbour.

He said relief items have been sent to the affected people while efforts are being made to reconstruct bridges and roads which were washed away. dpa afe vc

Copyright (c) 1999 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
Received by NewsEdge Insight: 09/28/1999 14:13:57