VRA DONATES TO FLOOD VICTIMS (NSEMPA, PAGE 15, DEC 20, 2010)

By Samuel Duodu, Sunyani.

The Volta River Authority (VRA) has donated 130 bags of maize to communities that were affected by the recent floods in the Kintampo North Municipality, Pru and Sene Districts in the Brong Ahafo Region.
The communities in the municipality and the two districts were flooded as a result of the opening of the Bagri Dam in the Burkina Faso and the torrential rains that hit the northern parts of the country that made the White Volta and its tributaries to over flow its banks.
The gesture to the flood victims in the Brong Ahafo Region formed part of a GH¢10,000 relief package to communities affected by the recent floods in the Northern Regions, which included the Brong Ahafo .
Mr Noble Dormenu, the Sunyani Area Manager of the Northern Electrification Department (NED) of the VRA who presented the relief items on behalf of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the VRA, Mr Kwaku Awortwi, said the gesture was to help mitigate the plight of the flood affected communities in the Brong Ahafo Regions situated along the Volta lake and its tributaries.
He expressed the hope that the relief food items would go a long way to also enhance the food situation of the affected communities whose farmlands had been destroyed as a result of the flooding.
For his part, the Principal Community Relations Officer of the NED of the VRA, Alhaji M.E. Siam, said most of the communities affected were predominately farming communities who relied on agriculture as their source of livelihood and therefore, needed to be assisted with the food items.
The Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, who received the items on behalf of the victims, thanked the VRA for the gesture.
He said already, the government had provided some relief items to the communities but it could not do it all alone and therefore, welcomed such assistance from other corporate institutions such as the VRA.
Mr Nyamekye-Marfo therefore, appealed to other corporate institutions to come to the aid of the communities affected by the floods to help mitigate their suffering.
Mr J.B. Nyarko, the Regional Co-ordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) for his part, appealed to the VRA and the Pru District Assembly to help construct drains along the roads in some of the VRA resettlement town at Yeji, the Pru District capital, to help address the perennial flooding experienced by the people in the area each year.