By Philip Tengzu
Balawa, (UW/R), Oct. 3, GNA – Some farmers in the Siiru Electoral Area in the Wa West District said their livelihoods are in danger after an irrigation dam collapsed and destroyed their farms.
They said aside from the destruction of the farms, they would be unable to engage in dry season farming and fishing from the dam from which they earned a living.
The Kagu, Dignafuro, Balawa, Siiru, Pignegben, and Nankpaanabule communities among others, depended on the Siiru dam for survival through dry season farming and fishing.
Mr Aremeyaw Dauda, a farmer at Balawa in the electoral area, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that “The farmers at Siiru, Nankpaanabule, Pibgenbgen, and other communities cannot carry their tomatoes or yam to the market due to the broken dam.”
“What this means is that they will all get rotten. We are in a serious challenge now”, he lamented.
The over two-decade-old Siiru irrigation dam broke its boundaries on Tuesday, September 27, 2022, following weeks of downpour, leaving the people in the area in shock.
When the GNA visited the site at the weekend it observed that farms across the dam were inaccessible without the use of a boat as the road was heavily flooded.
“We those who farm in the dry season cannot farm. It is because of this dam that most of us are here, if not we would have all run to the southern sector.
It has carried away people’s yam, maize, and vegetable farms. That is also what we depend on here to cater for our families and our children’s education”, Mr Tahiru Iddrisu, a fisherman at Balawa, said.
He said he would be jobless, especially during the dry season, as he would be unable to fish for a living.
Mr Iddrisu said, if nothing was done about the dam, there might be a mass drift of young people from the area to the south for nonexistent jobs and the increasing risk of social vices.
Mr Hardi Issahaku, also a farmer, indicated that the education of their children would be affected since teachers, who commute from Wa to Siiru daily, cannot access the community due to the broken dam.
Madam Seidu Mieri, a fish monger and a farmer at Balawa, said her livelihood and the welfare of her children were at stake as she relied on the dam for fish to sell as well as doing dry season farming from which she catered for her family.
“When we heard that it (the dam) has broken, we all wept. My daughter attending school in Wa also wept when she heard the dam has collapsed because the brother fishes in the dam and supports her in school”, she lamented.
The distressed farmers, therefore, appealed for immediate steps from the government to help to fix the dam to restore the livelihood of the many people in the area.
Meanwhile, Mr Richard Willo, the Assembly Member of the area, told the GNA that he had informed both the District Assembly and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) about the issue but was yet to receive any positive feedback.
GNA