The project, which was funded by the World Bank, was conducted by the WRC and partners including the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMET) to develop the flood risk maps for the beneficiary districts.

Apart from developing flood risk maps, the project also documented the genesis of floods and made proposals to reduce the impact of floods in the flood prone areas in the three regions in northern Ghana.

Sharing their respective testimonies about the impact of the project at the final workshop and Steering Committee Meetings on “the Disaster Risk Management Project”, held in Bolgatanga, the stakeholders including officials of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), district assemblies, and the WRC, said the development of the flood risk maps had contributed significantly to disaster management in their respective areas.

Mr Alfred Sawuug, the Upper East Regional Coordinator of NADMO, said the intervention came at the right time and supported the efforts of the NADMO to team up with traditional rulers to organize durbars to sensitize communities that were living and farming close to water bodies on the need to move upstream.

He said the development of the flood risk maps has not only helped them to undertake proper development planning, but has also helped them in educating landowners and developers on  areas to develop to avoid disasters.

Mr Ben Ampomah, the Executive Secretary of the WRC, urged the stakeholders to help sustain the project to mitigate the perennial floods which has led to the destruction of properties and the loss of human lives.He said one of the areas the project has helped to address was the weakness of disaster institutions in the management of disaster.

Mr Ampomah said the purpose of the stakeholders’ meeting was to share experiences about the project and to plan towards its sustainability.Captain Stephen Komla, the Director General of the GMET, who blamed most of the floods in the three regions in the north to the silting of rivers, streams and dams, called on the assemblies to begin working to address such problems.

The eleven districts that received the maps include Talensi, Nabdam, Bawku West, and the Kassena-Nankana Municipal all in the Upper East Region, the Sesila East in the Upper West Region.The others are the Central Gonja, Kumbungu, Savelugu-Nantong, West Mamprusi, Mamprugu Maudori, also in the Northern Region.