North East Regional Minister proposes buffer zone to prevent farming near White Volta

As part of measures to control the effects of what has become an annual ritual of the spillage of the Bagre dam, the North East Regional Minister, Yidana Zakaria, has proposed a buffer around the White Volta to prevent people from farming close to it.

He is of the view that people become casualties because they farm close to the banks of the White Volta and its tributaries.

“The buffer should be a no-go area. Don’t go there and farm. So if you don’t farm there, if you don’t settle there, there won’t be any question of moving people out during the rainy season,” the minister said.

“If we do that, whether they open Bagre dam or not, there won’t be an issue. There won’t be the fear that people experience every year,” Mr. Zakaria added.

Meanwhile, the Director General of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Eric Nana Agyemang-Prempeh has said his outfit has deployed rescue teams along the White Volta to avert the loss of lives resulting from the spillage of the Bagre dam.

Twenty-eight districts in seven regions are expected to be directly affected by the ongoing Bagre Dam spillage.

NADMO has partnered with the Marine Police and the 48 Engineers Regiment of the Ghana Army and will pitch camp at Walewale in the North-East Region.

The spillage of the Bagre dam from neighbouring Burkina Faso is done annually to prevent any breakage of the dam’s banks.