The Chairman of the Upper West Regional Platform on Disaster Reduction, Naa Robert Loggah, has advised farmers in the region to avoid making their farms in river beds and along river banks.
He said the practice had not only led to flooding and the loss of food crops but it had also contributed immensely to the loss of water bodies due to silting.
Naa Loggah, who spoke to the GNA in an interview, appealed to farmers to adhere to technical advice from Meteorological Service Department and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to help increase food production.
He also advised farmers against negative farm practices such overgrazing, slashing and burning which he said was causing massive
deforestation in the area.
Naa Loggah appealed to the government to come out with a land use policy to include village planning to help check indiscriminate building of structures on waterways and the use of drains as garbage dumps.
He said disaster risk reduction was an issue of great complexity that required close cooperation among stakeholders.
Naa Loggah called for mainstreaming of disaster risk reduction into the development planning systems and practice as well as providing appropriate support to those mechanisms to work efficiently.