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982.5 billion cedis needed to
reconstruct Northern Ghana
Tamale, Oct 27, Ghanadot/GNA- An approximated amount of over
982.5 billion cedis would be required to reconstruct the
infrastructure destroyed by the recent floods that
devastated Northern Ghana.
The provisional estimates compiled by the offices of the
National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) in the
Northern, Upper East and West Regions covers education,
water, roads, bridges and the general social infrastructure.
Others are sanitation and hygiene, human settlement and
sustainable livelihoods programmes.
Alhaji Alhassan Mahamoud, Northern Regional Coordinator of
NADMO disclosed this during a visit by a World Bank Mission
to the Northern Regions.
They were accompanied by Regional Ministers of the three
regions, NADMO officers and officers from the Community
Based Rural Development Project (CBRDP) and the Northern
Region Poverty Reduction Programme (NORPREP) in Tamale on
Friday.
The purpose of the meeting was to assess the extent of
damage caused by the floods and find out how best the World
Bank could use the CBRDP to solve some of the problems
brought about by the floods.
Mr. Peter Kristen, the World Bank Sector Leader for
Sustainable Development said the Bank through the existing
projects of the CBRDP would spend some money to improve upon
nutrition, malaria control and education in the
disaster-affected regions.
He said for the immediate future, the Bank would concentrate
on emergency relief, reconstruction and development and in
the long-term measure contribute to studies on the
opportunities for the economic development of Northern Ghana
and road sector development.
Alhaji Mahamoud said for the Northern Region, over 612.6
billion cedis would be required for reconstruction of
destroyed infrastructure.
He said the floods destroyed 18 classroom blocks and 1499.27
kilometres of trunk and feeder roads and this would require
5.9 billion cedis and 166.1 billion cedis respectively to be
reconstructed.
In the area of water and sanitation a total of 633 boreholes
and hand-dug wells were contaminated, while 9,707 buildings
were also destroyed saying that these would require 12.3
billion cedis and 310 billion cedis respectively to repair.
For the Upper East Region an estimated 269.8 billion cedis
would be required to reconstruct damaged infrastructure.
The floods destroyed 163 classroom blocks, which would
require 64.6 billion cedis to construct, 117 trunk roads
requiring an amount of 7.5 billion cedis and 735.1 km of
feeder roads needing 109.8 billion cedis to reconstruct.
Alhaji Awudu Yiremiah, Deputy Minister for Local Government
Rural Development and Environment (MLGRDE) expressed his
displeasure about the way some people were trying to
politicise the flood disaster and urged them to put a stop
to it.
He said the disaster should be of national concern, and the
government was doing its best to alleviate the plight of the
people and also source for the necessary funding to
reconstruct the damaged infrastructure.
Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, Northern Regional Minister
expressed his fears that with the contamination of the
sources of drinking water in the flood areas, it was likely
the guinea worm disease would re-emerge and called on all
stakeholders to help provide potable water for the people.
He hoped the interventions of the World Bank and other
development partners would help accelerate the economic
development of Northern Ghana.
GNA
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