Flood destroys farmlands in Bongo District.

Bongo (U/E), Aug 29, GNA - More than 100 hectares of land cropped with maize in the Bongo District was last weekend washed away by floodwaters.

The floodwaters also destroyed 112 houses rendering more than 500 people homeless.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Bongo after a tour of the affected areas, Mr. David Mba, District Officer of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), said most of the farms were near one of the tributaries of the White Volta River that overflowed its banks. Mr. Mba said because communities in the district did not have fertile lands the farmers had moved close to the river to farm. Mr. Francis Asampana, Bongo District Chief Executive, said the displaced people were temporarily housed in schools and community centres.

Some of the affected people gathered around the NADMO office in Bongo and said their only hope was in help they expected from NADMO but Mr. Mba said the NADMO office had nothing to offer.

Mr. Atanga Alanga, a farmer from Feo who lost his 20-hectare maize farm, said he had nothing left except his tractor. He said the early millet crop, which is usually used as a staple food during the months before the harvest of maize and late millet, did not yield well because of the June/July draught. "We do not have anything left to depend on, we are finished", he said. Mr. Ayorka Awafu, a trader from Balungu, said his house collapsed and he had to move his family to his shop at the market.