EU allocates €80,000 for flood preparedness in northern Ghana

The European Union (EU) has allocated €80,000 for flood preparedness in the five regions in northern Ghana.

This is in response to the warning of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) and the Meteorological Agency, of increased rainfall and flooding in northern Ghana.

This was contained in a statement issued by the European Commission in Accra on Thursday, September 7, 2023.

The funding is to support the identification of early warning mechanisms, update of risks analysis and monitoring mechanisms, trigger anticipation actions to mitigate and/or prevent flood impacts and identify priority actions and response preparedness.

“This EU funding aims at mitigating the impact of floods for potentially 50,000 people in Northern regions of Ghana during the peak of the season by reducing their shelter, WASH and health vulnerability as identified to likely be affected. It will enable the Ghanaian Red Cross to implement both anticipatory and early actions and will prop up preparedness actions such as training of volunteers, prepositioning of response stocks that should enable quicker deployment of a response, early evacuation of people in identifies sites, simulation exercises, awareness sessions for water-related diseases prior the floods season,” EU added in the press statement.

It said humanitarian assistance targeted areas were the Northern, the Upper East, and the Upper West, where around 2,144,677 people are at risk.

The assistance has a particular focus on vulnerable areas where those floods would have significant consequences on agriculture and community economic resilience of riverbank communities.

“This funding is part of the EU’s overall contribution to the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC),” the statement added.

Read the full statement from the EU here