The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, says the Akufo-Addo led administration has made the biggest investment since independence in the Northern Region by launching the multipurpose dam project in Pwalugu.
He added that, the NPP government cares for the average Ghanaian and it will continue to pursue these live-transforming initiatives in order to make the life of Ghanaians.
“The most important irrigation project that we have put in place is the Pwalugu dam. This is the one that is almost a billion dollars and it is going to provide irrigation to at least 24,000 hectares [of farm land]. Currently, Ghana has a public irrigable land of 13,000 hectares. So Pwalugu is going to double what we have in addition to the flood control and electricity. It is the biggest investment that any government has done in Northern Region since independence.”
Dr. Bawumia passed these comments on Tuesday, August 25, 2020, during an interview on Accra-based Peace FM.
Meanwhile, the opposition National Democratic Congress had criticised the government over the project insisting that it is a total rip-off and must be reviewed by Parliament. The party has also criticized government’s one village one dam initiative.
The Vice President dismissed all these criticisms in the course of the interview.
“The one village one dam initiative has been very helpful to Northerners. It has been very useful to them. It has ended communal fights over water because the fight of water is very high in the North during the dry season. So these dams are providing water to them. One village one dam has helped farmers very much and other people who need water for other uses in the North during the dry season. If you sit in Accra, you may not be able to appreciate the impact of these dams.”
President Akufo-Addo cut the sod for the construction of the Pwalugu Multipurpose project in November 2019. The project, which cost US$993 million is expected to be completed within 50 months.
The project comprise of three main components, namely the construction of a hydropower plant; the construction of a solar farm; and the establishment of an irrigation scheme covering an area of some twenty-five thousand (25,000) hectares.
The Pwalugu reservoir can accommodate up to 120,000 cages of 25 square metres each of fish, with an average yield of two tons per cage, which can provide continuous support for the country’s aquaculture and fisheries sector.
The project is set to be the single, largest investment ever made by any Government in the Northern sector of the country.
The entire project is being executed by a Chinese construction firm, Power China International and supervised by the Volta River Authority.
Follow Us
I’m Deborah Aba Narkoah. I’m an avid reader, writer and public speaker.
