Farmers ask government to rehabilitate Vea Irrigation Dam

Members of the Bongo–Nyariga Amalezele Cooperative Farmers Society have expressed concern about the delay in the rehabilitation of the Vea dam, which government promised to undertake.

According to the farmers, government promised to rehabilitate the lateral and canals of the Vea Irrigation Project which serves as the major water supply source and irrigation in the Bolgatanga Municipality and its environs in the Upper East Region.

The farmers expressed the concern when they visited the Irrigation Development Authority office in the Region to present a dialogue paper on the deplorable nature of the facility.

The farmers said due to the deplorable nature of the facility, they are unable to do dry season farming and this had affected their income and increasing the unemployment rate in the communities around the dam.

They also complained about the bad nature of the execution of the dam wall awarded by the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing to a consultant and wondered why a major stakeholder like the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) was not involved.

The Regional Director of GIDA, Mr Samuel Manu Ansah said his outfit was tasked to prepare bill of quantities about the rehabilitation of the facility, and that has been done and forwarded to the National Headquarters’ of the authority, which in turn would be presented to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) for action to be taken.

“What GIDA is now doing is drawing plans of the rehabilitation which would be completed and forwarded to MOFA soon and the relevant authorities. It is hoped that when this is done a tender would be opened for bidding of the project to enable the rehabilitation of the facility to take off.”

Mr Ansah said government had taken keen interest in the rehabilitation of the Vea Irrigation facility.**