CERF allocates nearly US$ 2.5 million to the flood response in Ghana
![Governments and the aid community are mounting a response to flooding that has affected over half a million people in West Africa. [Photo: UNMIL/Wleh]](/Portals/11/Images_country/MAL_UNMIL_Floods_crop.jpg) |
| Governments and the aid community are mounting a response to flooding that has affected over half a million people in West Africa. [Photo: UNMIL/Wleh] |
1 October: Floods have affected over 800,000 people in 13 countries in West Africa (Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, The Gambia, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Sierra Leone, Benin and Ghana).
Torrential rains in the last week of August and the first week of September, compounded by the opening of the spillway from the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso have caused major flooding in northern regions including Upper East, Upper West and the Northern Region. In light of the scale of the disaster, the Government declared a state of emergency in these regions on 11 September.
Final field assessments carried out by the Government through the National Disaster Management Office (NADMO), and partners estimated that 332,600 people had been affected, and 56 killed.
Material damage reported includes the destruction of houses, crops, roads and other public infrastructure. Disrupted infrastructure is a major impediment to accessing the affected areas and the distribution of relief assistance. Most of the affected populations have been relocated to school buildings, while some families are staying with relatives and friends. There is an urgent need to relocate families hosted in schools to alternate shelters to avoid further delays in opening of the school year which should have started on 11 September.
Food is identified as one of the major needs, with vulnerable populations in the affected areas resorting to one meal per day as a coping mechanism. Market prices have doubled for most commodities. Lack of safe drinking water remains another major concern. Moreover, health workers report an increase in the number of malaria and diarrhoea cases. Immediate needs include food, safe drinking water, mosquito nets, medicines, shelters, sanitation kits.
In a bid to identify the urgent needs of the affected population, a joint UN/NGO/Government assessment was conducted from 17 to 20 September 2007 and coordination meetings were held in Accra with the participation of UN/NGO/UNDAC team. The Relief Operation will assist 75,000 vulnerable individuals, who have been directly affected by a recent wave of floods in vulnerable regions of the Republic of Ghana (15,000 in upper east, 50,000 in northern region and 10,000 in upper west).
The total CERF funding of $2.5 million will be used to cover drugs, food and non-food items for approximately 75,000 men, women, adolescents and children in the affected districts.
WFP’s project of $1.5 million will provide immediate life-saving dry food rations to 75,000 people for 3 months as well as supplementary feeding to 10,000 pregnant/lactating women and malnourished children under five. Supplementary feeding programmes will be implemented in coordination with UNICEF and through existing partnership arrangements with the Ghana Health Service and the Ministry of Health.
UNICEF’s CERF nutrition grant will allow for, inter alia, the following activities will be carried out:
- Conduct rapid assessment of Nutrition situation with Ghana Health Service to identify priority needs and local capacity;
- Establish a monitoring system for supplementary/therapeutic feeding activities;
- Distribution of nutritional supplies (VAC, RUTF) at regional and district level under the guidance of MOH/GHS;
- Continue to monitor the nutrition situation, needs and interventions.
UNICEF’s CERF water and sanitation grant will ensure that water and sanitation related diseases that may be as a result of the flooding are kept to the barest minimum and that the fulfillment of children and women’s rights to survival and good health through the provision of safe water hygiene environmental sanitation is achieved.
WHO, UNICEF, and UNFPA will provide a Comprehensive Health Sector Support for flood victims in the three Northern regions of Ghana (Upper East, Upper West, Northern) and parts of Western and Volta Regions.
The overall objective is to prevent mortality and reduce morbidity, particularly among women, and children. The specific objectives are:
- To support the provision of basic health services to affected populations through the provision of essential drugs, vaccines, essential equipment, and possibly logistics support;
- To prevent and respond to outbreaks of epidemics, such as cholera, typhoid, malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea, giving particular attention to displaced populations;
- To raise awareness of risks of communicable diseases and ways to prevent such, particularly among the displaced population;
- To encourage care practices for child survival, growth and development and the well-being of pregnant and lactating women;
- Address the specific needs of the most vulnerable women and adolescents especially in term of access to gender and culturally sensitive RH, ASRH and HIV/STI/GBV prevention, information and services;
- Prevent excess reproductive health mortality and morbidity amongst women and young people due to obstetric complications, exposure to sexual violence, and transmission of HIV and/or STIs
In close collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and other UN and NGOs partners in the Food Security Cluster, the FAO project of $252,413 will immediately cover the purchase of 180 metric tons of fertilizers to be distributed to 7100 flood affected farming families. It will target the vulnerable farmers whose crops survived he floods in the three affected regions of Ghana.
[Last Update: 15 October 2007]
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