Development would have been more visible if the Upper East Region had a minister in the government’s highest decision-making body, cabinet. Alfred Awuni, the NDC’s Bongo Constituency Youth Organiser, stated on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show that the absence of a cabinet minister from the region has resulted in no one making a case for the region’s rapid development.
“I think they would have listened if there was someone from the Upper East Region who is a cabinet minister and always sits in cabinet meetings, prompting the President and Vice President about this dear project,” he said.
Mr. Awuni’s comments were in connection to the Pwalugu Multipurpose dam and its associated delays.
It would be recalled that Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, admitted that the long delay in the construction of the Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam Project was as a result of financial constraints.
Speaking at the launch of the Northern Development Authority’s five-year strategic plan in Tamale, Dr. Bawumia said the government will look for funds to construct the dam.
“Even though the project is facing financial challenges, we are determined to find the resources to complete the construction of the dam.”
Sod was cut for the construction of the Pwalugu Multipurpose dam project in 2020 and was to be funded with a Sydohydro facility of $993 million.
The project awarded to China Power International group was scheduled for completion four years after the sod cutting.
The project was aimed at addressing the perennial flooding associated with the spillage of the Bagre dam from neighbouring Burkina-Faso and also providing 60MW and 50MW of hydro and solar electricity respectively.
But physical construction of the project at Kurugu in the North East Region is yet to commence after two years and ten months into the project execution period.
Last week, peasant farmers in the Northern part of the country demonstrated over the delay in the construction of the dam.
The farmers expressed fears that the project had been abandoned and called for a probe into it.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
