"It was five o'clock in the morning. I woke up and saw water running into my house. All I could do was to wake up my wife and my seven children and take them out. Everything else I had to leave behind". Sanou Komo Boureima is one among the 6,000 people in Bama village in the south-western part of Burkina Faso who could do nothing but watch his house being washed away by torrential rains in late July. The heaviest rains fell down during 28th and 29th July, raising the water level in one day to more than 1.5 meters.

The mayor of Bama village, Sanou Siaka, was awaken the same morning by children crying and people calling for help. Water was so high that he asked local fishermen to come with their boats to save people from their inundated homes.

"Some people came out with just underpants on, they were forced to leave their houses so quickly. It was very dramatic," tells the mayor. A fifteen-year-old girl died when a wall collapsed on her next door from mayor's house.

Burkina Faso, one of the poorest countries in the world, faces very difficult times ahead. According to the National Agricultural Statistics and Forecasting Service, at least 33,000 hectares of farmland have been washed away in regions that are the main food production areas of the country. Thousands of people are living on food provided by the government, private people and humanitarian organizations. Hundreds of people are still sleeping in tents donated by Morocco.

"Every night after sunset we gather next to tents and eat food made by local women. Fortunately, it's Ramadan now so we only eat once a day. But what happens when Ramadan ends? My family has some green beans left but that won't last long. And sleeping in a hot tent night after night is becoming unbearable", says Sanou Komo Boureima, a farmer who lost not only his house but also all his maize, ground nuts and rice in the floods.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has assisted thousand households with blankets, clothes and hygiene kits including towels, soaps, sponges and water buckets. The Burkina Faso Red Cross Society has mobilized 300 volunteers to register flood affected people, distribute goods and provide health education. The volunteers have gone from door to door reaching 11 000 people telling them how to avoid malaria and other water borne diseases like diarrhoea.

"Many wells have been contaminated by the flood water but people still continue to use the water. We've been going around to encourage people to boil the water before they drink it," explains Karambiri Zakaria, a Red Cross volunteer since 18 years.

Sanou Komo Boureima had never before seen such heavy rainfalls as Bama village faced this time. He is also aware this is not the last time such floods will happen. "I believe we should start thinking of building better drainage systems, strengthen bridges as well as start building our houses with cement at least the foundations," he says while calling for both technical and financial aid.

On October 2, The International Federation extended its emergency appeal for Ghana and Togo to assist flood victims in Burkina Faso. An additional 415,000 Swiss francs was added to the budget to support further distribution of emergency relief to nearly 13,000 people from Burkina Faso in the next six months. The funds will also finance health information programmes and hygiene education. The joint appeal seeks a total of 2.9 million Swiss francs (US$ 2,5 million, € 1,7 million) to provide aid to some 95,000 people in the three countries.