Government Must Make Use Of Spillage From Bagre Dam

NEWS COMMENTARY ON FLOODING IN NORTHERN GHANA AS A RESULT OF RAINS AND BAGRE DAM SPILLAGE

A famous resource economist, Erich Zimmerman once stated that quote “resources are not, they become” unquote. While the above statement is true, one wonders why in a country with some of the best brains in civil engineering, urban planning and resource management, Ghana has not been able to strategise to store and harvest rains and the excess water that the Burkinabes spill from the Bagre Dam every year. What the nation has been good at is rather resorting to donating relief items to flood victims instead of identifying sustainable ways of addressing the problem. Sadly, right after the donation of items everybody goes to sleep while the root cause of the problems persists until another year. During this time of the year, the rains combined with the spillage from the Bagre Dam wreak havoc in Northern and Upper East Regions. Communities are cut off from main towns as roads and bridges are flooded. This disrupts farming activities and other productive businesses in the affected areas. One example is in the Saboba District of the Northern Region where the road and the bridge that link Saboba and Yendi at Kpalibademong have been covered in water preventing movement from and to the two towns. One will wonder what went into the planning and construction of the bridge across the river? Reports from natives in the communities suggest that the contractor didn’t construct the bridge high enough to avoid such a situation. For the next couple of days market women can’t step out to trade, farmers would have to remain in their homes, health personnel in need of drugs and other essentials will have to wait while patients suffer. The above consequences go a long way to hinder the human rights and overall development of the inhabitants of these areas. Just because there was poor planning and dereliction of duty, the rights of citizens to certain necessities of life have been denied.

The irony is that in a matter of months the water will dry up and the inhabitants as well as their domestic animals will then struggle for water. Even though rain is a natural occurrence and the spillage a man-made act, the country has not been able to identify that water in such abundance is a resource and must be managed to prevent disaster. Why are we so bless yet so cursed to do simple things like harvesting rain water to prevent needless floods? What prevents us from constructing dams to store the spilled and rain water for use in the dry season? One dares to say that the floods that are experienced in this country are needless! Especially in the Northern and Upper East Regions where the impact of the spillage of the Bagre Dam combined with rains is most felt. The best thing that can be done is the construction of dams and canals instead of running to donate a few blankets, mattresses and rubber bowls to victims. In Burkina Faso, authorities have identify water as a vital resource to the extent that rivers and streams with their tributaries that flow through the central parts of the  capital, Ouagadougou and most parts of the country have been channeled and stored for agricultural purposes throughout the year. That is why tomato traders in Ghana go all the way to purchase tomatoes from Burkina Faso because when tomato is out of season in Ghana it is in abundance in Burkina Faso. Ghana has many rivers, streams and tributaries.

To this end, building dams and canals is the best way to manage the resource that flows freely.  Water from the rain and the spillage from the dam is a resource that must not be allowed to cause havoc in our communities. Burkina Faso has done it and it is working for them. Let’s take the needed steps to harvest the rains and water from the Bagre Dam to irrigate our farms. This is a great opportunity for success under Government’s one village one dam policy. Let’s just do it to stop the needless annual flooding.

BY:  ALEX BLEGE, A FREELANCE JOURNALIST.