As part of measures to improve agriculture and enhance the livelihoods of farmers, the DCE for Bawku West District in the Upper East Region, Tahiru Issahaku Ahmed has put in motion plans to construct a multi-million dollar dam in the area. The dam, when constructed, would trap and store water spilled from the Bagre. It would also collect water that is expected to cause floods as a by-product of the construction of the Pwalugu Multi-purpose Dam.
Mr. Ahmed said this when he spoke to A1 Radio’s Mark Smith recently.
“I attended a workshop that was hosted by Professor Millar. It was about the Pwalugu Dam that was going to be constructed. The issue was that they are going to dam the White Volta and use it to provide irrigation facilities and those kinds of things. Professor Millar’s concern was that the Upper East Region was going to get its share in the form of floods. He said you people, [people of Bawku West], you would suffer it. You would lose your farmlands and all that. What came to my mind was, is water not a resource? If we are going to get nothing but water, then what do we use the water for? Should we allow the water to come and create floods and then we would complain?”
“I said if that would be the case, I would want to introduce a project that would dam that water [floods waters as a result of the construction of the Pwalugu Dam], keep it there; put up a treatment plant and treat part of that water and supply to my district as potable water. Then also use part of it as an irrigation facility to ensure that we engage our youth throughout the year,” he recalled.
Mr. Ahmed disclosed that a consultant was brought in from Amsterdam, national capital of the Netherlands to develop a plan. Timonde was settled on as the most suitable area for the construction of the dam. According to the DCE, the project would cost in the region of 4 million dollars.
Should the DCE manage to get funding for the dam, the people of Bawku West District, according to Mr. Ahmed, would get an avenue “for a sustained production of vegetables and other food crops. You would also create surpluses of food produced as well as add value to the things produced.”
When Mr. Ahmed spoke to Mark Smith, he mentioned that processes have begun to secure donor support towards the construction of the dam.
There would be a dredging and retification of overflow of the White Volta component to be able to accommodate over 16,000 litres of water and is expected to cost over 400,000 dollars. The project would also house a reinforced storage underground facility for water which would be 20ft deep at a cost of over 225,000 dollars. Others components would include the engineering of irrigable lands.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
I love this DCE. He is developmentally oriented
I pray for him to bring this to pass