![\"\"](\"https:\/\/starrfm.com.gh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/f3176176-2cbf-4b22-aabc-6a3cf549c163.jpeg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cWe don\u2019t wait for the crocodiles to begin to eat people before we come to look at it. Because of the rising level of the water, [the flooding] is affecting the wildlife that is in the dam site. Most of the houses have been infested with crocodiles, snakes and all manner of reptiles that are in the water. We have an instance where a crocodile entered somebody\u2019s house and ate animals. Here, they are peasant farmers. So, if their crops have been affected, what do they have?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe want to plead with the government, NADMO (the National Disaster Management Organisation), civil society organisations and non-governmental organisations to come to their aid. Most of the farmers, their crops have been submerged in the water. If we don\u2019t solve the issue now, there would be hunger in this part of the constituency,\u201d the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tempane, Lydia Lamisi Akanvariba, remarked when she toured the affected communities on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Left Behind<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tempane is not alone in grief. Same stories are being told about flooded communities in two surrounding constituencies\u2015 Garu and Pusiga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the predictions heard from informed natives on Wednesday at Tempane did not sound good. With heavier downpours highly expected now and in September, the natives say they can only anticipate more mess. What is ahead might invoke memories of a 2016 flooding disaster that saw a record number of red-earth residential structures particularly in the rural areas of the region dissolve in flood waters completely from the foundation level like cubes of sugar dropped in a steaming cup of tea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The affected houses in need of intervention today, according to the MP, were not considered to be at risk of being flooded before the construction of the Tamne Dam began in 2016 to irrigate 3,250 acres of land. The handlers of the irrigation dam project reportedly resettled only some houses they thought would be affected in future flooding events. In other words, the situation the affected households now find themselves would have been prevented had \u201cthe government and the engineers\u201d not left them behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are appealing to the government and the engineers of this project to look at it again. They have resettled other people. But there are some people that still need resettlement. We are crying now because this is the rainy season and the peak of it has not started yet. From now until September ends, it\u2019s going to be serious\u2015 very, very serious. The water level is going to rise more than this. We are pleading with the government to resettle those houses that have not been resettled,\u201d stressed the lawmaker, surrounded by a crowd of affected constituents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An elderly woman, Fauzia Issaka, told newsmen about her goats and sheep being attacked and consumed by crocodiles. She expressed fears the reptiles would do same to any child they stumbled across. Some children, interacting with Starr News, voiced their worries alike, urging the government to initiate a resettlement action, get them back in school in time and provide them with food \u201cbecause the floods have buried our parents\u2019 farmlands as you can see\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are happy with the dam but there are so many things also affecting us. The water has taken over the [roads]. We can\u2019t cross again. Initially, motorking (a motorised tricycle) used to charge us Gh\u00a22 from Gagbiri to Garu through that short path. And now that the water has taken over that road, we have to go and pass through Tempane to Garu, which now costs us Gh\u00a28. We spend more time indoors with our children because of the crocodiles outdoors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt has been very difficult for our children\u2019s education now. Our children have not been going to school. Animals like snakes are biting us and we don\u2019t have a health centre here. Our farmlands where we have farmed onions, rice, maize and millet have been submerged. Look at our deprived area. They relocated only eleven houses and a church. Government needs to relocate more houses,\u201d the Assemblyman for Gagbiri-Natinga, Akuka Halidu Iddrisu, told journalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Source:\u00a0\u00a0Starrfm.com.gh<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/starrfm.com.gh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/a3e0e374-7223-43ea-beb4-e46d0b63d1b7.jpeg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n