We need increased investment in climate change mitigation – NORPRA

Mr Bismarck Ayorogo, the Executive Director of the Northern Patriots in Research and Advocacy (NORPRA) has called for an increase in investment to implement existing climate change adaptation and mitigation plans.

He said proper investment in the area would enable District and Municipal Assemblies that were higher development authorities in the communities, to effectively implement activities in response to the control of flooding in their areas of authority.

Mr Ayorogo made the call in Bolgatanga in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of stakeholders meeting on early warning systems, actions, and channels for information dissemination during the rainy season.
The stakeholders meeting was organized by the Water Resources Commission (WRC) in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region, under the ‘Integrating flood and drought management and early warning for climate change adaptation in the White Volta Basin (VFDM)’ Project, funded by the Climate Adaptation Fund.

“Flooding is an issue of climate change, which is affecting lives and property in this region which is one of the poorest and all statistics indicate that 80 per cent of the people are into agriculture and flooding affects agricultural activities and creates problems of food insecurity and by extension hunger “, Mr Ayorogo said.
He therefore called for efforts to reduce flooding, stressing that it was not negotiable and everything possible had to be done to ensure its reduction.

He said flood control measures such as cropping a distance from the boundaries of the White Volta to reduce the amount of damage to crops was still not yielding the desired results and called for accurate meteorological data on the weather to be disseminated to communities to help control flood.

He added that the construction of the Multi -purpose Dam at Pwulugu would help to reduce the perennial flooding in the northern regions because of the spillage from Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso and suggested a review of the design of the dam to enable it address the flooding problem.

Source: newsghana.com.gh