News
Annual Bagre Dam Spillage — A Blessing or Curse?
For many farming communities scattered along the White and Black Volta basins, the rainy season brings both promise and peril — a time when the blessings of rainfall merge with the dread of annual flooding triggered by the spillage of Burkina Faso’s Bagre Dam.
A few weeks ago, officials in Ouagadougou confirmed what residents in Northern Ghana had long feared — the controlled release of water from the Bagre reservoir.
While the measure is necessary to prevent the dam’s collapse, it has for decades spelled destruction downstream, leaving Ghana’s northern regions counting their losses year after year.
The story is all too familiar. Entire fields of maize, rice, and groundnuts vanish beneath raging waters. Mud-walled houses crumble under the force of the floods, while roads connecting villages disappear, schools close, and classrooms are turned into makeshift shelters for displaced families.
The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) rushes in with mattresses, blankets, and bags of rice, but the relief items, though vital, are often insufficient compared to the magnitude of devastation. In Yagaba, for instance, some victims reportedly received no support at all due to limited resources.
“This year, at least there was some education on resilience and preparedness,” said Issah Yakubu, a farmer from the North East Region who lost his crops in last year’s floods. “But when the water comes, we lose everything — maize, rice, groundnuts. When it goes, there’s nothing left to eat or sell,” he lamented.
NADMO continues to urge residents in flood-prone areas across the Upper East, North East, Savannah, and Northern Regions to relocate to safer grounds. But for many, relocation is not an option. Their livelihoods are tied to the fertile riverbanks; abandoning their farms would mean abandoning the only source of income they know.
Last year alone, thousands of people were displaced across northern Ghana due to flooding.
Yet, amidst the destruction lies an irony. The same floods that wreak havoc also deposit nutrient-rich silt on farmlands, making them fertile for dry-season farming.
Agricultural experts argue that, with proper irrigation systems and government support, these communities could turn disaster into opportunity. “The spillage is both a challenge and a blessing,” said rice farmer, Aziz Zakaria. “If we had irrigation schemes, we could use this same water to grow crops in the dry season. The water that destroys can also sustain us,” he added.
Some have argued that the long-promised solution lies in the construction of the Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam in the Upper East Region — envisioned to serve as a buffer for excess water from Bagre, generate electricity, and irrigate thousands of hectares of farmland.
However, delays in implementation have left communities trapped in a yearly cycle of loss and recovery.
Civil society organisations have repeatedly called for a shift from relief-based interventions to long-term resilience strategies — strengthening infrastructure, empowering communities, and developing sustainable livelihoods.
The broader picture is even more concerning. With the global climate crisis intensifying, rainfall patterns across the Sahel have become increasingly erratic. Burkina Faso’s dam managers are often compelled to spill earlier, or even multiple times in a single season, to protect the integrity of the Bagre Dam.
The result is an unpredictable flood cycle that leaves Ghana’s northern communities living in constant fear and their futures washed away by forces beyond their control.
As the waters rose once again this year, displacing countless innocent families, one truth remains undeniable: until proactive measures are taken ahead of the next season, the Bagre Dam spillage will continue to shift from a yearly natural occurrence to what is truly a slow-motion, man-made disaster.
By Geoffrey Buta, Tamale
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The National Identification Authority (NIA) has announced the commencement of enforcement of the National Identity Register (Amendment) Regulations, 2026 (L.I. 2523), warning institutions that fail to comply with the new requirements of possible fines of up to 2,000 penalty units.
The Authority says it will deploy a Biometric Verification Implementation Task Force to inspect institutions and ensure they comply with the regulations, following the expiration of a three-month grace period granted to businesses and public institutions.
Speaking at a press briefing in Accra on Monday, November 2, 2026, the NIA’s Corporate Affairs representative, William Ampomah Emmanuel Darlas, said the Authority had completed its public education and stakeholder engagement activities and was now moving into the enforcement and compliance monitoring phase.
He explained that the regulations require institutions that verify the identities of customers or applicants as part of their operations to use the NIA’s approved biometric verification platform instead of relying solely on visual inspection of the Ghana Card.
Under the new rules, institutions are prohibited from photocopying, scanning or keeping copies of the Ghana Card for identity verification purposes.
Mr Darlas stressed that simply collecting a customer’s Ghana Card, looking at the photograph and comparing it with the person presenting it would no longer be accepted as a valid method of identity verification.
He, however, clarified that the Ghana Card remains the country’s official national identity document and that citizens are not required to register for a new card or capture their biometrics again under the new regulations.
He said the new system is intended to reduce identity fraud, impersonation and other crimes by ensuring that the person presenting the Ghana Card is the actual owner.
According to him, the biometric verification process will rely on information already captured during Ghana Card registration, including fingerprints, iris details and facial features stored in the card’s chip.
Mr Darlas warned institutions against using third-party companies or individuals to access the NIA’s identity verification platform, insisting that the Authority does not work with intermediaries.
He said institutions seeking access to the National Identity Register must deal directly with the NIA and complete its official onboarding process.
The process requires institutions to prove that they are legally registered companies in Ghana, obtain certification from the Data Protection Commission and work with the NIA’s technical team to establish the necessary connection to its platform.
He further cautioned institutions already connected to the platform against subletting their access to other businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises.
He disclosed that the Authority had received reports of some institutions providing their verification services to other businesses without the NIA’s approval and warned that those involved would face legal action.
Mr Darlas said organisations that fail to comply with L.I. 2523 could face fines ranging from 500 to 2,000 penalty units, depending on the nature of the offence.
He explained that the NIA does not have the authority to impose the fines directly but would take offenders to court for the appropriate punishment.
He indicated that Institutions found guilty could also face additional administrative measures, including being barred from accessing the NIA’s verification platform in the future.
The NIA representative further clarified that the new regulations do not prohibit all institutions from physically using the Ghana Card during transactions.
The Managing Director of the Ghana Publishing Company Limited, Nana Kwesi Boatey, has revealed how he transformed a major overstaffing challenge into a success story through the government’s 24-Hour Economy initiative.
Speaking at the Government Accountability Series on Monday, November 2, Mr. Boatey disclosed that when he assumed office in February 2025, and inherited a bloated workforce of 250 employees doing work that could be efficiently handled by 150 people, a situation that created serious liquidity challenges for the state-owned company.
Instead of resorting to downsizing, he adopted an innovative approach by instituting a 24-hour operational system.
Under the new system, staff were redistributed across three shifts: 7 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., 10 a.m. – 7 p.m., and 10 p.m. – 4:30 a.m.
This not only ensured optimal use of labour but also maximized machine utilization and improved overall output.
According to him, the single move redefined the productivity culture within the company, reinforcing discipline, accountability, and efficiency.
The Ghana Publishing Company’s turnaround is being cited as a practical example of how the 24-Hour Economy policy can drive growth without job losses.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
