New Wa Municipality being envisaged - JAK

Government is considering the possibility of creating a municipality and an additional district within the Wa district in the Upper West Region.

President John Agyekum Kufuor, who announced this said the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development had been tasked to study the feasibility of the issue since the district has a population of over 200,000 people.

President Kufuor was addressing a durbar of chiefs and people of the Wala Traditional Area at Wa on the second day of his three-day official visit to the region.

He said the issues to be considered were whether the population could support the municipality and the district to be viable.

President Kufuor appealed to the chiefs to be tolerant as they sought for justice in their legitimate claims.

He said government wants fair play to support legitimacy and truth but would not support any acts of violence or unruly conduct.

"We must have peace, law and order to develop the country, otherwise all our efforts will come to nought," he added.

President Kufuor said tenders had been opened for the construction of two irrigation dams in the Wa District.

These are to be sited at Bilbo and Singbokpong for an all year round agricultural activity and increase food production in the district.

Naa S.D. Gore II, Paramount chief of the Dorimon Traditional Area and the Acting President of the Wala Traditional Council appealed to the President to replicate one of his special initiatives in the Upper West Region by placing emphasis on the production and promotion of cashew, beans, sheanut, rice, maize and groundnut production.

He also appealed to the government to consider constructing irrigation dams to enable the people to engage in dry season farming and stop the rural-urban drift and movement from the Northern sector to the Southern sector during the dry season.