The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Saboba in the Northern Region, George Bigrini, says plans are in place to transport Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates in Kpalba who have been cut-off due to floods, to the exam centre.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, Mr. Bigrini said the candidates will be conveyed to the centres via buses or canoes if need be.
“We have made plans to procure vehicles, we are just waiting. We are organising canoes to the Wapulu side. We have a school across the river with a bigger bus at the Wapulu school. We have made arrangements for the bus. So the plan is that, when we transport them to the other side of the river, the bus will take them to Saboba,” he noted.
Some students in the Kpalba circuit in the Saboba District have appealed to the government to provide them with a means of crossing over to the district capital, Saboba, where their examination centre is located.
They fear they may not be able to sit for the BECE beginning on Monday, September 14, 2020, as the roads have become impassable due to the floods.
“We are afraid of the water bodies here. How are we going to write our first paper on Monday? We are pleading with the District Assembly to either find a means to get us to Soboba or allow us to write the exams in our school,” one of the candidates said.
“We cannot cross the water to write the exams. If WAEC does not allow us to write in our school, we will miss out on the BECE,” another candidate said.
Background
Torrential rains in the northern part of Ghana coupled with spillage from the Bagre dam in Burkina Faso left hundreds of farmlands submerged.
The Pwalugu bridge is also flooded to the waist level covering over a 1-km stretch of road.
Six lives have been lost due to this.
Almost every year, the flood gates of the Bagre dam are opened and this usually affects residents along the White and Black Volta rivers.
Spillage of excess water from the dam is as part of a routine safety measure to ensure that the water is kept below the safe operating level of the dam in order to prevent it from collapsing.
