Mr Prince Bagnaba Mba, President for Forum for Equity, a human rights organisation has called for concerted efforts to construct the Pwalugu Multipurpose dam in the Upper East and North East regions.
“Pwalugu multipurpose dam is one of the greatest visionary project for the whole of northern Ghana. Nature has blessed us with what it takes things to turn around and there is therefore the need to accelerate the process.”
Mr Mba who was speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Accra about the importance of the project said the dam would provide hydro-electricity, expand thousands of acres for agricultural and industrial activities and stop the perennial youth drift from the North to the southern sector of the country for non-existent jobs.
He said the ceremonial sod-cutting brought hope and great sense of relief to those concerned about the economic development of Northern Ghana with great potentials, but that was not to be as the progress was stalled along the line.
“This is time for collaboration with all political divides to ensure the attraction of investors’ confidence from local and international markets as it is a very good product that needs promotion.”
He said the potential beneficiaries should, as a matter of priority, come out with fundraising plans. “Future generations will not forgive us, if we don’t speed up the process for the reality of such a world class project that will change the paradigm shift and put us on the globe of prosperity.
The project benefits cover irrigation, fisheries, power generation and flood control as explained below:
The key benefit of the 25,000-hectare Irrigation Scheme will be the largest in the country. The scheme will boost economic activity in the Upper East and North East regions, as it will enhance the productivity of farming and attract large-scale commercial farms supported by about 15,000 out growers.
The project has the potential to increase annual rice production in the country by up to 117,000 tons and maize by up to 49,000 tons, reducing imports of these grains by 16% and 32% respectively.
This will save foreign exchange as well as stabilise prices of these commodities on the local market. Other crops that will benefit from increased production include onion, tomatoes, sweet potato, sweet pepper and watermelon.
The scheme will also form the nucleus of an agro industry to process the output of the farms. This scheme will support the Government’s policy of Planting for Food and Jobs as well as the One-District One-Factory initiative. Other potential benefits include development of aquaculture and fisheries.
The hydropower component will increase Ghana’s renewable energy capacity and contribute to meeting Ghana’s commitments under the United Nations Framework for Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Ghana’s target is to achieve 10% renewable by 2030, from less than 2% today. The project will also have a solar component with the solar energy complementing hydro energy to enhance reliability of supply.
The electricity infrastructure created by the project will also provide access to electricity in the northern part of Ghana and enhance the reliability of power supplied to the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo).
The dam will also provide protection from the perennial floods that occur in the White Volta basin during the rainy season and will help manage spillage of water from the Bagre dam.
This will reduce the regular damage to property and enhance income security. In 2018, floods in the area affected 52,000 people and led to 34 deaths and 2 people missing. Farms and properties were also destroyed.
Source: GNA
