President to cut sod for Bui hydro

Accra, Aug. 14, GNA - All is set for the sod cutting for work to commence on the construction of the 400-megawatt Bui Dam hydropower and the Bui City project on August 24.

The 622 million-dollar project is to be funded with a 562 million dollars concessionary loan from the Government of China and a 60 million-dollars counterpart fund from the Government of Ghana. The project, the third hydro project after Akosombo and Kpong, is one of the measures of government for a solution of the perennial energy problem, which leads to load shedding.

Mr. Joseph Kofi Adda, Minister of Energy, who announced this at the Meet-The-Press series in Accra on Tuesday, said President John Agyekum Kufuor would perform the sod cutting at the project site located close to the Bui National Park in the Brong Ahafo Region.

Albert Kitson discovered the area as a potential site for hydroelectric power development in the 1920s when the British Government embarked on a campaign to support the social and economic development of the area.

The Minister said several efforts were made in the past to develop the dam but these did not materialise adding that through sustained effort by the current Government, a lasting solution had been found. He explained that the project was a multi-purpose one, which besides the power generation also had other uses such as irrigation, fisheries and tourism.

"Current irrigation potential is estimated at about 30,000 hectares which should transform agricultural production in the area and also the region," Mr Adda said.

He said it was also planned to develop a modern Bui City and added that the strategy was to use the Resettlement Housing Programme as the building block of the project.

Mr Adda said out of an estimated projected construction workforce of 3,400 some 2,900 would be Ghanaians with the rest being Chinese expertise.

"Ghanaian companies will also benefit from the sub-constructional works and also supply of materials," he stated. Mr. Adda said the Environmental Impact Assessment had been carried out and the required mitigation and compensatory measures had been evaluated for necessary action.

The project, he said, had been designed so as not to have any trans-boundary impacts, especially with C=F4te d'Ivoire. "No portion of C=F4te d'Ivoire will be inundated even at the full supply level."

He noted that Parliament had already passed the Bui Power Authority Bill, which provided the legal basis for the institutional arrangements of the project.

"We intend to tap the expertise of Ghanaians who were involved in the earlier projects (Akosombo and Kpong) in order to ensure that the mistake of past are avoided," the Minister said.

Answering questions, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, said the programme had a power purchase agreement where proceeds from the project would be shared accordingly. He urged the business community to take advantage of the project saying, "Over 600 million dollars is being sunk into the project that businesses could move in for their benefits."