Stakeholders have held a discussion in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region, on finding effective ways of curbing the perennial flooding in northern Ghana.

The regional stakeholders' forum was aimed at gathering inputs from all the stakeholders to help develop a Flood Management Model for addressing the annual perennial floods in the five regions of Northern Ghana.

The event brought together representatives from the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), the Ghana Red Cross Society, Forestry Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, Traditional and Religious leaders, Coalition of NGOs and Heads of Departments among others from the Upper East and North-East Regions.

It was jointly organized by the TAMA Foundation and Tamale Ecclesiastical Province Partnership in Action (TEPPIA) with funding support the STAR-Ghana Foundation.

Speaking on the topic "The state of floods and response mechanism in Northern Ghana," Dr Chrysogonus Anab, the Executive Director of the TAMA Foundation, a Tamale based NGO, said the annual torrential rainfall coupled with the spillage of the Bagre Dam had often caused the flooding of communities along the White Volta Basin in Northern Ghana.

He said even though the floods, almost every year, caused loss of lives, livelihoods and properties, government and development partners through NADMO usually responded with items such as the supply of food, blankets, mattresses, medicines and toiletries that only gave temporal relief.

He underscored the need for a paradigm shift where planned resources for post-floods rehabilitation and reconstruction be put in place to address the phenomenon.

"For instance, most of the flood victims who lost their crops, animals as well as had their houses collapsed find it difficult to recover and are virtually living in perpetual poverty and misery with their women and children being the most vulnerable", Dr Anab said.

He stated that nationally, in 2017, the floods affected one million people (IFRC, 2017) and in 2018, 100,000 people and expressed the hope that the Flood Model when developed and implemented would help find sustainable solutions to the perennial flooding in Northern Ghana

The Executive Director also attributed the flood situation in Northern Ghana to the non-compliance with early warning measures often issued by NADMO and lack of coordinated mechanisms to monitor and act with dispatch as well as poor preparedness.

Mrs Eunice P Agbenyadzi, the Programmes Manager of STAR-Ghana Foundation, underscored the need for the mobilization and galvanization of local resources from churches, mosques, traditional authorities, local assemblies, youth and cooperate bodies, to be complemented by donor agencies and government to help confront the challenges associated with perennial floods.

She regretted the lack of funds available to implement the Disaster Management Plans of the Municipal and District Assemblies and said unless all hands are put on deck to collectively mobilize resources to deal with the trend, the situation would continue to worsen.

She explained it was to help address the problem that STAR-Ghana Foundation and its partners initiated the move to collate inputs from all the five regions of the north to develop the Flood Management Model for the affected regions.

Mrs Agbenyadzi who stated that each of the flood prone regions may have its own Flood Management Model, stated that the programme would ensure the creation of a local level and national level synergy in the development of the Flood Management Model.