An official at the Ghana Embassy in Ouagadougou, Burkina-Faso, on Thursday night confirmed to the Times on telephone that the spillway of the Bagre Dam will be opened tomorrow, Sunday. He was responding to a report by the paper last Tuesday that spillage of excess water from the dam, originally scheduled for Wednesday, August 21, had been postponed. However, attempts to get confirmation from the Volta River Authority on the new development proved futile as the Director for Special Duties, Mr Asante Okai, could not be reached on his mobile phone. Meanwhile, 11 people have died following flooding of their communities after persistent rains in the North. Three of the people got drowned and the rest died when their houses collapsed on them. A situational report submitted by a committee set up by the Northern Regional Coordinating Council (NRCC) on flood-prone areas said the deaths were recorded at Janga, in the West Mamprusi, Sug-Tampia in Savelugu-Nanton and Yoggu in the Tolon-Kumbungu districts. The report also indicated that many houses have been washed away and a number of farms submerged in water. The report, presented to the Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, on Thursday in Tamale said that the Saboba District has practically become an island with its roads under water. Due to the expected flooding of the North, after the dam spillage, the NRCC set up the committee made of representatives of government agencies NGOs and the district assemblies to fashion out strategies to deal with the situation. The report by the committee said members visited some of the disaster-prone areas to assess the situation and saw that a number of communities along the White Volta are already flooded. According to the committee the White Volta in the Tolon-Kumbungu and central Gonja districts has already overflowed its banks and its communities can only be reached by canoes. Following the report, Alhaji Idris has urged committee members to intensify their effort to get people living in the low-lying areas to move to high ground. Last year, the spillage of excess water from the dam following torrential rains, caused flooding in many communities in the three northern regions which claimed a number of lives and caused extensive damage to property and infrastructure. Following the spillage the Bukinabe authorities and their Ghanaian counterpart reached an understanding on information-sharing on when the spilling will be done this year to avoid last year’s experience. Source: Times