GTZ rehabilitates three dams

Charia (UW), June 29, GNA - The German Development Cooperation (GTZ) has in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture at the weekend handed over three rehabilitated dams at a total cost of 75,000.00 Euros to three communities in the Upper West region. The dams, which served as a major livelihood for the communities, were destroyed during the 2007/2008 floods rendering hundreds of people who relied on them jobless in their various communities.

Mr. Anthony Dzatse, Deputy Project Manager of GTZ Dams Rehabilitation, who did the symbolic handing over at Charia, said the communities; Charia in the Wa Municipality, Manwe in Wa East District and Babile in the Lawra District contributed manually towards the rehabilitation, while GTZ provided food and machinery for the execution of the projects.

He said the gesture was also to stem the rural-urban drift and the perennial movement of the youth from the region to the southern sector of the country for non-existent jobs during the dry seasons. The project Manager said the dam at Charia had an arable and irrigable land of four hectares which could engage a lot of farmers in vegetable farming in the municipality and urged them to make maximum use of the facility.

Mr Emmanuel Eledi, Regional Director of Ministry of Food and Agriculture, commended the GTZ for rehabilitating the dams for the communities and gave the promise that his outfit would closely monitor the facilities to ensure that they were adequately utilized. He said the people who previously did not utilize dam facilities were now enthusiastic because of the ready market that awaited their produce and encouraged the farmers to constantly liaise with agricultural extension officers to attain the best technical expertise to improve on production.

The Regional Director also appealed to other development partners to assist them to rehabilitate and construct more dams and dug-outs to encourage more people to engage in dry season agriculture.