The Ghana Red Cross Society (GRCS) in collaboration with the Swiss Red Cross (SRC) has presented some Disaster Risk Reduction tools to some disaster-prone communities in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region.

The tools, which included Life Jackets, Fire Extinguishers, Shovels and Pickaxes, cutlasses, Wheel Barrows, Veronica Buckets, Rescue ropes, bicycles and First Aid kits, were given to five selected communities to help prevent and manage incidence of disasters.

The gesture, which was given to communities including Ania –Kunkua, Asebga, Atonobugoro, Asebre and Azorsidaana, was part of efforts to help train Community-Based Management Volunteers in the disaster zones in the District to help curb and deal with disaster issues.

Mr Paul Wooma, the Upper East Regional Manager of the GRCS, explained that the presentation of the tools was in fulfillment of the promise his outfit and the SRC made during the training of the Community Preparedness Response Teams last year.

He mentioned that last year the GRCS in collaboration with NADMO, the Forestry Commission and the Ghana National Fire Service trained 400 selected community members in Community Disaster Preparedness and Response and mentioned the beneficiary Districts as Bongo, Nabdam, Binduri, and the Kassena-Nankana Municipal.

The Regional Manager stated that before the training was organized, a baseline survey was conducted with funding support from the SRC to establish the Disaster-prone areas in the above-mentioned beneficiary Districts.

He called on government to place more premiums on disaster prevention instead of waiting for them to strike before the country uses huge sums of money to respond to a disaster when they occur.

Mr Peter Ayamga Ayinbisa, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Bongo, who received the items on behalf of the communities, commended GRCS and the SRC for presenting Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) tools to his district.

The DCE, who stated that the Bongo District was among the disaster-prone Districts in the region, indicated that apart from those five disaster-prone areas, there were still many communities in the District which were also disaster endemic.

He cited for instance that but for the assistance of the Community Based Management Volunteers in the District trained by the GRCS and its development partners including the SRC and the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), many vulnerable groups in the area particularly children, women and the aged would have lost their lives during the last rainy season as result of flooded rivers and streams.

Whilst calling on the Community Based Management Volunteers to use the DRR tools for their intended purposes, the DCE appealed to the communities to desist from practicing open defecation and indiscriminate burning and littering of the environment.

Bonaba Baba Salifu Atamale Lemyaarum, the Paramount Chief of the Bongo Traditional Area, also impressed upon the Community Based Management Volunteers to work hard to justify the confidence reposed on them.

He expressed worry about the indiscriminate felling of trees for sale and charcoal production and warned those who were engaged in such activities to desist from that and to embark upon vigorous tree growing to replace the lost vegetation.