When floodwaters pour in from Burkina Faso’s Bagre Dam each rainy season, they wash more than just soil and crops downstream.
They carry away livelihoods, widen inequality, and force families into desperate choices, including burning the very forests that once sustained them.
For communities along the White and Black Volta rivers, farming isn’t just an occupation — it is survival.
But the combination of climate variability and annual dam spillages means those fields are increasingly swept away before harvest. In some peak years, tens of thousands of hectares of farmland have been lost across northern Ghana. In the severe 2007 spillage, about 70,500 hectares of crops were submerged, leading to an estimated 144,000 metric tonnes of food lost — equivalent to roughly 20 % of the annual food needs in the most affected regions.
In subsequent years, similar patterns have repeated. By 2018, nearly 76,000 farms were wiped out by floods in the north, displacing thousands and amplifying food insecurity. In 2024 alone, around 3,000 hectares of farmland were submerged, affecting about 2,000 farmers and deepening hardship for families already scraping by.
From maize to charcoal: a survival pivot
For many in Duu, this cycle has left little choice but to turn to charcoal burning. Fields that once fed families now lie underwater long enough for crops to rot or fail, and firewood sales become a short-term lifeline.
“We know what we’re doing is wrong,” says Kulaabsiba Seidu, whose five hectares of maize were destroyed again this year. “But if we don’t burn charcoal, our families won’t eat.”
He adds that children are being pulled out of school because parents cannot afford fees, uniforms or food. These are not isolated stories — they reflect a broader erosion of rural resilience as regular crop losses eat into household income.
Flood-affected households often report significant economic losses. In past flood episodes, some families have lost on average the equivalent of GH¢4,000, with some reporting losses above GH¢40,000, devastating sums in agrarian economies.
A dangerous landscape, socially and environmentally
The shift towards charcoal production carries its own risks. Community elders and traditional leaders speak of spiritual distress tied to cutting sacred trees, while environmental degradation accelerates. Forest loss reduces soil stability and canopy cover, weakening the landscape’s natural ability to absorb heavy rains — a dynamic scientists say compounds the impacts of intensified rainfall patterns linked to climate change across West African basins.
Farmers also face physical dangers when floodwaters rise. Residents describe battling snakes and crocodiles while attempting to salvage crops, and occasional drowning when canoes overturn in strong currents.
“We’ve lost family members trying to save crops from the floodwaters,” says Damanko Alhassan, a farmer who lost his entire maize harvest. “It’s not only hunger.”
More than a local tragedy
It’s not just Duu: towns and villages from Pwalugu to Yagaba, Nabari to Wungu are affected annually, all sitting along the Volta basin floodplain. These recurring floods have broader implications for food security, rural income and regional development.
Efforts like the proposed Pwalugu multipurpose dam, intended to regulate water released from upstream, have been stalled for years. Local leaders argue that without such infrastructure — combined with community-based climate adaptation efforts — farmers will remain trapped in a cycle of loss and environmental harm.
As climate models project increased flood risk and changing rainfall patterns across northern Ghana’s river basins, the stories from Duu are not just about lost crops. They are about the limits of adaptation in poor, climate-sensitive regions, and the tough choices families make when survival sits between hunger and a burning forest.
Reporting by Dokurugu Alhassan for Asaase News in the North East Region.
Asaase Broadcasting Company airs on Asaase 99.5 Accra, Asaase 98.5 Kumasi, Asaase 99.7 Tamale, Asaase 100.3 Cape Coast, AsaasePa 107.3 (Accra).
Affiliates: Bawku FM 101.5, Bead FM 99.9 (Bimbilla), Mining City Radio 89.5 (Tarkwa), Nandom FM 101.9, Nyatefe Radio 94.5 (Dzodze), Sissala Radio 96.3 (Tumu), Somuaa FM 89.9 (Gushegu), Stone City 90.7 (Ho) and Wale FM 106.9 (Walewale).
Listen online: atlanticafricanews.com/, Sound Garden and TuneIn.
Follow us:
X: @asaaseradio995, @Asaase985ksi, @Asaase997tamale, @asaase1003, asaasepa1073
Instagram: asaaseradio99.5, asaase985ksi, asaase100.3, asaase99.7tamale, asaasepa107.3
LinkedIn: company/asaaseradio995. TikTok: @asaaseradio99.5
Facebook: asaase99.5, asaase985ksi, Asaase100.3, asaase99.7, AsaasePa107.3.
YouTube: AsaaseRadioXtra.
Join the conversation. Accra: call 020 000 9951/054 888 8995, WhatsApp 020 000 0995. Kumasi: call 059 415 7985 or call/WhatsApp 020 631 5260. Tamale: call/WhatsApp/SMS 053 554 6468. Cape Coast: call/WhatsApp 059 388 2652.
#AsaaseRadio
#AsaasePa
#TheVoiceofOurLand
