Two Communities in West Mamprusi Educated On Climate Change Risk

The West Mamprusi District Assembly in partnership with Hanns-Seidel-Foundation, an international non-governmental organisation, has undertaken a climate change disaster related risk reduction and management awareness education in some communities in line with the district’s agenda in strengthening local civil society capacity in the fight against climate change. 

Currently, climate change constitutes an environmental and socio-economic development challenge in the entire country especially the West Mamprusi area. The district is generally low lying with numerous streams of varying sizes and the peoples’ livelihoods in recent times had been affected so much by the dictates of climate change induced weather conditions.

The area is characterized by unpredictable severe harmattan winds, heavy rainstorms, annual flooding emanating from silting up of the rivers, drought and serious land degradation arising from bushfires and indiscriminate tree felling. This had left deep-seated damaging effects on farmlands and farm produce, animals and even human casualties with accompanying immeasurable psychological impacts on the affected people with respect to coping with the menace. 

Noticing this fact, the German-based NGO Hanns-Seidel-Foundation, financially supported the West Mamprusi District to implement a climate change combat project dubbed “Fighting Climate Change Through Reforestation”.

The overall goal of the project as also captured in the district’s development plan and supported by Ghana’s Climate Change policy interest, was to build the capacity of local civil society to enable them take up their own local initiatives against climate change effects.

To this end, the West Mamprusi District Assembly recently organised a climate change disaster related risk reduction and management awareness education, intended to strengthen the capacity of two river fringed communities such as Zua and Mishio, so that they could respond appropriately to the changing patterns of climatic conditions in their areas. 

The workshop according to Issifu Sulemana Jobila, Project Coordinator, sensitised all at-risked and vulnerable communities’ members on series of management and prevention skills of various subjects relating to climate change associated disasters. This was to enable the communities prepare adequately, manage and prevent all disasters associated with climate change for the purpose of poverty reduction and economic growth. 

Mr. Jobila explained that, the workshop increased the understanding of participants on disasters such as floods, bushfires, windstorms, droughts, among others associated with climate change induced factors and equipped them with the appropriate skills and knowledge to enable them adapt to climate change effects.

A total of 268 people from both communities made up of fishermen, traders, farmers, chiefs, opinion leaders, women, and children as direct beneficiaries were reached and trained, he disclosed.  Out of this, 86 were female whiles 182 were male beneficiaries.  

Participants were taken through topics such as overview of climate change, disaster, types of disasters, forms of disasters, categorization of disasters relating to climate change specifics, skills and knowledge of managing and reducing climate change related disasters and among others.

As Mr. Jobila put it, so far the programme is having a positive impact in the lives of the people of the two communities as they were adequately responding and managing climate change related disasters in their localities, given that knowledge from previous workshops was being adopted and utilised.