Paramount chief of the Buipe Traditional Area in the Central Gonja District, Abdulai Jinapor II, has pleaded with the government and the managers of the Bui Dam to help residents who have been displaced as a result of a dam spillage exercise.
Authorities at the Bui Dam opened one of the dam’s five outputs (pipes) to force the water back into the White Volta and into Buipe.
Buipewura Abdulai Jinapor II made this known to the media during an inspection tour of the affected areas.
The victims, who have lost the majority of their belongings, are allegedly in a distressed state.
Homes, schools, power poles, and cables are among the many public and private properties that have been damaged.
Food crops, including maize and millet, as well as livestock and tubers like yam and cassava, were also either swept away by the flood waves or drowned.
“We are crying to the whole world, the government, and the Bui Dam authorities that they should come and see our sorrow,” he pleaded.
According to Mr. Jinapor, “a lot of the people had to be relocated. They had to be put in schools, and the schools could not allow the students there.”
“So, we are going to have double danger. School children cannot go to school and people too cannot work,” as the chief declared all highways leading to the impacted “oversea schools” in far-off communities closed.
So far, no lives have been lost, according to District Chief Executive for Central Gonja, Salia Kamara.
With regard to what would happen to the students and teachers in Buipe, the DCE stated, “We will put them in other schools so that when the water goes back, we can send the children back to their various schools.”
Source: The Independent Ghana