Vice President and the New Patriotic Party’s presidential candidate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has pledged to help Ghana attain food security. Dr. Bawumia explained that this would be done through the application of appropriate technology.
He said this when he spoke on “Ghana’s Next Chapter: Selfless Leadership and Bold Solutions for the Future” on February 7, 2024 in Accra.
“I want a Ghana where we attain food security through the application of technology and irrigation to commercial large-scale farming. We will also promote the use of agricultural lime to reduce the acidity of our soils, enhance soil fertility, and get more yield from the application of fertilizers. Ghana has an abundance of limestone to do this. I will prioritize the construction of the Pwalugu Dam by using private sector financing to crowd-in grant financing,” he said.
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 a result of financial constraints.
Speaking at the launch of the Northern Development Authority’s five-year strategic plan in Tamale in November 2023, 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,” he stated.
The sod was cut for the construction of the Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam project in 2020. It was to be funded with a Sinohydro facility of $993 million.
The project, awarded to China Power International Group, was scheduled for completion four years after the sod cutting.
The project aimed to address the perennial flooding associated with the spillage of the Bagre Dam from neighboring Burkina Faso. It would also provide 60MW and 50MW of hydro and solar electricity, respectively.
But physical construction of the project at Kurugu in the North East Region has yet to commence, 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 dam’s construction. The farmers expressed fears that the project had been abandoned and called for a probe into it.
Source: A1Radioonline.com101.1Mhz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
