TOGO/BURKINA FASO: Relief materials arrive in remote west African villages to assist victims of floods

Record ID: 455809

  • Title: TOGO/BURKINA FASO: Relief materials arrive in remote west African villages to assist victims of floods
  • Date: 11th October 2007
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING IN WATER
  • Embargoed: 26th October 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVAAJ7ZKTHO1XSLJ3HDW8Z1ZPJYG
  • Story Text: The United Nations estimates 800,000 people in 13 countries across West Africa alone have been affected by flooding, with Ghana, Togo, Burkina Faso and Mali the hardest hit. Aid agencies are delivering food, mosquito nets and drinking water to people around the region.
    Aid agencies are delivering relief materials to hundreds of thousands of people across West Africa who have been affected by floods.
    From cotton producers in Mali to millet growers in Mauritania, those who work the land in some of the world's poorest nations spent much of the year praying for rain as clear skies and bright sunshine parched the earth.
    But when the heavens opened, the downpours were some of the heaviest for a decade, sending floodwaters swirling through mud-hut villages, destroying homes and washing away crops from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east.
    "It kept raining even after the house fell over. When I saw that rain was still falling, I didn't know where to go, so I just stayed in the house with the children. We have asked for help from a brother who had built his house somewhere else, and he agreed to take my wife and children in,"
    said Ouessongo Bagoana, a farmer who lives about 170 kilometres outside of Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou.
    In the worst affected areas, relief agencies have battled to provide emergency food rations, safe drinking water and mosquito nets. But even in places where the immediate risk is lower, the long term impact of crop failures will take a heavy toll on poor communities long after the waters have receded.
    Images of flooded villages in East and West Africa have been beamed around the world but, for many like Bagoana, the economic impact in the coming months is likely to prove devastating.
    The destruction of food crops and the flooding of roads have meant what produce does make it to market is often selling at a premium beyond the reach of many, particularly those who rely on cash crops like cotton for their income.
    Bagoana is hopeful that the small vegetables gardens they planted on dry land earlier this year, will see them through the hard times.
    "Everything that I planted, and it's not only the rice, the millet, the maize and all that, but also the peanuts - let's not even talk about that - everything is destroyed. We have been tending vegetable gardens since December and January so that we could get something from them , so we can benefit a little bit from these gardens. It's with the money we make from that garden that we will rebuild the house," he said.
    Mali and Togo have both slashed their forecasts for cotton production in recent days, putting additional strain on a sector which employs an estimated 15 million people in West Africa and which is struggling against tumbling world prices and market-distorting subsidies paid to U.S.
    farmers.
    "All the roads are completely flooded and all the fields as well, all the houses and everything else are also flooded," said Dogbe Simon Logossou, a farmer in Togo.
    But the more immediate concern is keeping displaced people alive.
    "We have two Puma helicopters which are our usual helicopters for transporting French troops which we have here and we carry equipment and other cargo underneath the helicopter so that we can transport them quickly,"
    said Bernard Vittori, who's running the French army's relief effort in the region.
    Another effect of the flood will be the current interruption in learning for children. And given the economic fallout, many of their parents will be unable to pay their fees for the foreseeable future.
    "Our homes are damaged, we don't know where we will live, or go to school," said Edouard Koffi, a student displaced by the floods.
    The United Nations estimates 800,000 people in 13 countries across West Africa alone have been affected by flooding, with Ghana, Togo, Burkina Faso and Mali the hardest hit. Conservative estimates put the number killed across Africa at some 200.
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