BURKINA FASO: Tents needed to house homeless after devastating floods

OUAGADOUGOU, 31 August 2006 (IRIN) - Officials in Burkina Faso’s northern town of Gorom Gorom are seeking urgent solutions to help 6,000 people who lost their homes in flooding earlier this month.

"People are still living on the sites - in schools, community centres - and we are worried as the academic year starts soon," said Boukary Coguyam, head of the welfare and national solidarity office for Oudalan province.

"We urgently need 330 tents to shelter those in the schools. Those sheltered in administrative buildings can stay, but for those in the schools, we cannot wait any longer," he said.

The tents are to house more than 1,700 people currently sheltered in the main grammar school of Gorom Gorom, three primary schools and a kindergarden.

The national Red Cross said it could provide only 15 tents, which would shelter 100 families.

Romain Guigma, national Red Cross coordinator for disaster readiness and response, said the organisation was working to provide pregnant women and breastfeeding women with mosquito nets.

"They are vulnerable and we are working to prevent them from getting malaria at this time of the year when the disease easily develops with rains," Guigma said.

About 12,000 people were affected by the floods in Oudalan province. People lost homes, belongings and crops. The area was declared food insecure in 2005. This year began well in terms of agricultural production but floods have triggered fears of food shortages. The region suffered a locust invasion in 2004.

"The worse part of the story is that people have been affected at a moment when they cannot till the land or plant anything anymore because the fertile part of the land has been washed away and the remaining period of the season will not carry enough rain," said Ernest Ouedraogo, head of the agriculture department of Oudalan.

Officials fear that people will use their savings to buy food in the coming months, thus reducing their ability to recover from the floods for next year's planting season.

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