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Feasibility studies for Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam cost $70m – Agric Minister

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Feasibility studies for the Pwalugu Multi-purpose Dam is complete. It is said to have cost the taxpayer some $60 million, according to the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto. He spoke on URA Radio today, Wednesday, December 7, 2022. The media interaction formed part of the Minister’s working visit to the region. 

Dr. Akoto explained that the Pwalugu Dam, costing about a billion USD, remains a top priority of the government despite the obvious delays. 

According to the Volta River Authority, “VRA started work on the Pwalugu Dam as far as the early nineties when it conducted pre feasibility studies on potential hydro sites in the White, Black and Oti River Basins. The current project activities started in 2013 when VRA, with financial support from the Agence Francaise de Development of France and technical support from the World Bank, initiated a feasibility study as well as an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for the construction of a Multi-Purpose Dam and Irrigation Scheme. VRA completed the feasibility study in 2018 and has proceeded to the implementation phase of the project.”

The primary components of the Project are: a dam with an elevation of 165m near the Pwalugu Bridge on the White Volta River and with a maximum reservoir area of 350 km2. A powerhouse consisting of two turbines with 60MW of installed capacity and 16.5 MW of firm continuous capacity. An Irrigation Scheme consisting of a 12m high weir and canal network (main, primary, secondary and tertiary canals) for about 25,000 ha of land.

The Project area is located on the White Volta River in Ghana, about 16km east of Pwalugu Bridge on the main Tamale-Bolgatanga road. The White Volta River at the dam site is the boundary between the Upper East Region and the North East Region. The coordinated operation of the Pwalugu Dam with the Bagré Dam upstream on the White Volta River in Burkina Faso and with the Akosombo and Kpong dams downstream on the White Volta River is essential for river basin management. The dam will be a central roller compacted concrete combined and earth and rock fill dam on the banks.

The President broke ground for construction to begin in 2019, almost 3 years down the line, no significant construction has been seen but according to the Minister, it doesn’t mean the project’s been abandoned by the government. 

“The Pwalugu is a big one. It is going to cost us a billion USD. When the president inaugurated it 3 years ago, we were talking to financiers, including the Chinese government to see how we would do it. The feasibility studies have now been completed and now we have a document to go out searching for money to come and start the project itself. It would be the biggest single investment in the whole of the 5 Savannah regions since independence.”

“We have done the feasibility studies. The feasibility cost us about 60, 70 million USD. We have financed that and we are ready to go on with it,” he said.

Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana

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