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DRNGhana Community Engagement Flood Awareness Month - Evidence review. Working together with Ngleshi-Amanfrom community to boost their Flood Early Warning Systems and Resilience.

The maiden series focused at Ngleshie-Amanfrom community and it’s environs in the Ga-South Municipal Assembly was designed as an evidence based practice at real time when Team DRNGhana visited communities flooded after a less than forty five minutes heavy downpour that left many households devastated socially and economically. This helped DRNGhana field team to assess the situation as part of a larger project looking at community engagement for long-term flood resilience and mitigation. It’s was recorded that climate change phenomenon has also intensify the impacts of  many communities negatively. Flood awareness month targeted the hardest hit district and aimed to develop disaster resilience measures that gives resident a sense of belonging that an NGO like DRNGhana take their disaster challenges seriously and ready to tackle the perennial stresses on livelihoods collectively.

DRNGhana team educated and sensitized the community’s to desist from several social practices, residents actions that causes flood disasters. We were also confronted with questions about what measures the Districts Assembly have put in place to curtail issues of perennial flooding. While much work has been invested in addressing the economic and technical basis of disaster preparedness, less effort has been directed towards understanding the cultural and social obstacles to take advantage of opportunities and actions for disaster risk reduction. Mostly the causes of these perennial flooding are unauthorized structures built on waterways, and inappropriate disposal of solid waste into water bodies and gutters. According to many residents of Ngleshi-Amanfrom most of the storm drains are blocked by human activities because they lack proper waste collection system.

Addressing Ngleshi-Amanfrom community risk levels is by conducting vulnerability assessment, working closely with victims to design comprehensive fact-based solutions. With this we revisited existing risks and how it was confronted to determine future implications of creating new risk to derive mitigation actions. Floods have wreaked havoc in various communities in the Ga-South Municipal Assembly now and the last decade which have taken lives and caused irreversible damages to Infrastructure, livelihoods and cultural lands. This needs to change. The exercise core value is leave no one behind and collective approach to endure that we take advantage of indegenes of the communities to use their knowledge of the causes and how to reduce devastations. DRNGhana will measurably outline a resilience blueprint that can advance   the perennial flooding community preparedness necessary for precautionary safety response for the coming rains to avoid a recurrence of flooding.