Attachments
A. SITUATION ANALYSIS
Description of the disaster
In early August 2018, communities in Northern and Upper East regions of Ghana were affected by heavy and continuous seasonal rainfall, which was exacerbated by the annual opening of the Bagre dam. The Bagre Dam, located in Burkina Faso, caused unprecedented flooding in many local communities resulting in loss of lives and properties. The Bagre Dam spilled on the 31st of August 2018, when the dam reached its maximum level 235m. However, by the 10th of September, the dam was still spilling, the water level remained at the maximum level of 235m. The continued rise in water levels resulted in flooding which affected farmlands and posed threat to lives and properties as the spilled water found its way into the Black and White Volta Rivers, which overflowed into the three regions of the North and the Eastern Region. According to an assessment report by the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), about 11,959.6 Hectares of farm land had been affected by the flooding, posing food insecurity risk to the affected communities.
An initial assessment report produced by NADMO highlighted the devastating impact of the floods. Some 23 communities in 2 districts (13 communities in Bawku West District and 11 communities in Talensi Districts) with a total of 3,556 households (21,336) were affected in the Upper East region, whilst in the Northern region 202 communities in 9 districts, thus 10,567 people, were also affected leading to a total of 31,903 people (5,317 households) affected in both regions.
Several houses and farm crops were destroyed. Furthermore, the Northern region had reported the deaths of 9 people and 12 people injured, whilst the Upper East region reported 6 deaths and 1 missing. About 487 houses were destroyed, whilst about 7,757 houses were partially destroyed by the floods.
In view of the above, Ghana Red Cross Society (GRCS) received funding from the DREF amounting to CHF 174,724 to meet the urgent needs of the affected communities and assisted 1,500 households focusing on shelter, Non-Food Items (NIFI), Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and health through an emergency operation..
In early December 2018, an operations update was issued, granting a no-cost one-month timeframe extension to this operation till 31 January 2019. This extension was to enable completion of distribution of relief items, complete community engagement and social mobilization activities, and reporting and lessons learned workshop and documentation. Delays in these activities were caused by the length of time taken to finalize the Memorandum of Understanding, procurement and delivery of relief items and proper identification and registration of target beneficiaries. The overall timeframe for this operation was four months.