Government to construct 20 dams in Builsa land

By
Godfred A. Polkuu, GNA

Sandema (U/E) July
22, GNA – President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has disclosed that government
would construct 570 dams in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions
under the one village, one dam project.

The Builsa area in
the Upper East Region would receive 20 to support all year irrigation
activities in the area.

He said 10 dams each
would be constructed in the Builsa North and the South, and indicated that two
each would be constructed in Sandema, Wiaga, Chuchuliga, Siniesi and Kadema to
improve farming activities in the District.

President Akufo-Addo
who was addressing the Chiefs and people of the Builsa Traditional Area in the
Upper East Region as part of his two-day working visit to the  Upper East Region, said it was imperative for
Ghana, especially the three regions of the north to establish proper
infrastructure for the enhancement of agriculture to improve their livelihoods.

He added “In order
to support the “Planting for Food and Jobs” (PFJ)programme, which included
200,000 farmers last year, Upper East Region had 30,000 out of the number and
the Builsa Traditional Area had 3,790 benefiting from the  subsidised fertilizer and  improved seedlings.”

President Akufo-Addo
was enthusiastic that 18,000 metric tons of fertilizers were distributed to
farmers in the Builsa area alone, and said government was establishing 50
warehouses across the country to store food products produced by the country’s
farmers as their sweat had been in vain for far too long.

“At the end of the
year when these 50 warehouses are in place, that is also going to be a thing of
the past,” and indicated that five warehouses would be constructed in the
region, with the Builsa area getting one.

He said government
had received 150 million dollars from the Indian EXIM Bank as loan for the
creation of Agriculture Mechanisation Centres which would involve the creation
of tractor hiring pools across the length and breadth of the country.

“Parliament is
debating that matter as we talk now, and I am hoping that by the time Parliament
rises, on the 27th of July, that loan would have been rectified and then we can
get on with establishing these agricultural mechanisation centres which would
provide agricultural services for our farmers,” he said.

President Akufo-Addo
as part of the visit, inspected on-going road construction works on the
Navrongo-Sandema-Wiaga-Fumbisi road, and cut the sod for the construction of a
new District Police Headquarters at Sandema, the Builsa North District capital.

Nab Azagsuk
Azantilow, theSandem-Nab and overlord of the Builsa Traditional Area, commended
the President for the roll-out of government’s flagship programmes, especially
the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) initiative and entreated government to
complete the communal labour project at Chuchliga for SHS which was at roofing
level, and to absorb the Wiaga Community SHS into the public system.

The Chief further
urged government to fulfil its promise to complete the on-going road
construction in the area and said the Sandema-Doninga-Santejam-Wa roads were of
economic importance to the PFJ programme as vast fertile lands in the areas
were opened for cultivation.

“My chiefs and I are
very much interested in the PFJ programme, but this programme will succeed
better if tractor pools are established to make it easy to go into the
programme under the slogan one chief one farm,” he said.

Nab Azantilow
expressed worry that the Builsa Traditional Council which was the oldest in the
region, remained the only ethnic area without a tertiary institution.

“We have no doubt
that you, our fair-minded democratic President, will not countenance such
unfairness and disparity, and therefore it is our hope that sooner or later the
area will be given a befitting tertiary institution like a Nursing Training
College and one of the modern state of the art technical institutions.”

He said the
Traditional authority was ready to partner government and would release land
for such development exercise.

PresidentAkufo-Addo
was accompanied by Mr Dominic Nitiwul, the Defence Minister, Mrs Mavis Hawa
Koomson, Minister for Special Development Initiatives, Local Government and
Rural Development Minister, Hajia Alima Mahama, the Upper East Regional
Minister, MrRockson Ayine Bukari, Deputy Attorney General and Minister for
Justice, Mr Joseph Dindiok Kpemka, Minister for Water and Sanitation, Mr Joseph
Kofi Adda, and other government officials.

The President has
since rounded up his tour of the Upper East Region, and is expected to continue
same in the Northern and Upper West Regions.

GNA

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