800 COMMUNITIES TO BE DISINFECTED (BACK PAGE, APRIL 17, 2010)

MORE than 800 communities in the Upper West Region covering about 7,500 km of tsetse fly-infested areas between Ghana and Burkina Faso, are to be disinfested under the Pan-African Tsetse fly and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC) spraying exercise.
The exercise, which is a deviation from the previous ground spraying, is being done aerially with five light aircraft.
Launching the disinfestation exercise at the Wa airstrip, a deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Alfred Tia Sugri, said as part of the programme, the communities would also be sensitised to the trypanosomiasis disease.
He indicated that lying in the Guinea Savannah Zone, the Upper West Region could be a leading producer of livestock in the country.
However, the trypanosomiasis disease, which mostly affects cattle, poses a very serious threat to both human and their animals, thereby reducing the production of milk, meat and the economic viability of the animals.
Such factors, he said, could deprive the people of income and other benefits from agriculture.
Dr Sugri said African heads of state, in an attempt to eradicate the insects and the disease, passed a resolution 10 years ago to make the spraying exercise a multi-national project to eradicate tsetse flies from the continent.
That, he said, had brought together countries such as Burkina Faso and Mali to also join in the exercise, adding that East African countries such as Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia were also taking part in the project.
The National Co-ordinator of the tsetse fly spraying exercise, Dr Charles Mahama, told the Daily Graphic that the exercise was being supported with $10 million from the African Development Bank and the Government of Ghana for the next six years.
“The objective is to weed out the tsetse flies across all corners of the continent,” he explained.
On the effects of the tsetse flies on animals in the region, Dr Mahama said so far, out of more than 2,000 ruminants screened, particularly cattle, it was realised that the trypanosomiasis disease was very serious among animals in the region.
However, he said, no case of the disease was identified after screening more than 22,000 people countrywide, which included 14,000 people from the Upper West Region.
He traced the history of tsetse flies and the trypanosomiasis disease in the three northern regions and said even though northern Ghana was well-endowed, the effects of diseases such as the trypanosomaisis and the invasion of tsetse flies were hampering efforts to reap the desired benefits from such resources.
He lauded the introduction of the aerial spraying system, pointing out that previously, the ground spraying led to the removal of vegetation, as well as the killing of wildlife.
For his part, the deputy Upper West Regional Minister, Mr Caesar Kale, who chaired the function, was happy that the exercise had begun in the region.
He, therefore, called on the chiefs and people of the region to support the exercise to make it a success.