The Upper East Regional Minister, Stephen Yakubu handed over the Vea Supply and Irrigation Scheme in the Bongo District to Messrs. Rann Luuk Constructions for rehabilitation sometime in March early this year.
The rehabilitation work which was expected to commence in March this year and to be completed in 30 months has since not started.
Details of the contract work included restoration of the eroded downstream slope of the dam embankment to improve the dam’s stability, rehabilitation of the irrigation canal network, drainage work, construction of farm roads, and perimeter fencing of the irrigable area.
At a ceremony to officially hand over the site, the Regional Minister called for quality work from the Contractor within the scheduled time frame to enable farmers in the area to continue with their farming activities.
Shoddy work, he cautioned would not be tolerated under the Akufo-Addo-led government, stressing that Technical men would furnish his Office with periodic reports on the progress of work at the site.
He said the government, under His Excellency President Akufo-Addo, was committed to providing new dams, dugouts and rehabilitating existing irrigation schemes to attract the energetic and teeming youth into Agriculture.
He said the youth usually migrated to the southern part of Ghana in search for alternative means of livelihood, especially in the dry season, due to the lack of functional irrigation facilities.
Mr. Yakubu said the Vea Irrigation Project had a total of 850 hectares of rice cultivation and upon completion of the rehabilitation work, it would double to about 1,700 hectares.
9 months down the line, the project is yet to start. The Minister for Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, speaking on URA Radio today, Wednesday, December 7, 2022, said work on the dam would begin in 2023.
“The Vea dam was built in the 1970s which we allowed to go to waste in terms of lack of maintenance and so on. Since this government came, we’ve received a loan from the World Bank for rehabilitation. 110 million dollars has been put into Tono Irrigation Scheme, left bank and right bank in Kpong. What is left is Vea. For the Vea Dam, now we have some funding. We are going to start with the rehabilitation of the Vea Dam in this budget, the 2023 season,” he said.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
