Reconstruction begins on damaged Tono Irrigation Dam spillway

Correspondence from Upper East:

Reconstruction of the Tono Irrigation Dam spillway in the Kassena-Nankana Municipal Assembly has kick-started earnestly.

The contractor has moved to the site with resources to rebuild the 500-meter-long and 60-meter-wide facility which was extensively damaged by torrential rains in October last year.

Reports last year stated that strong moving water spilled from the dam went beneath it causing damage to the concrete floor and retaining walls of the structure built-in 1975.

When GhanaWeb’s Senyalah Castro visited the facility, heavy-duty machines were busily breaking the residual concrete floor and the rubble transported out of the channel. Efforts were also made to remove some iron buried under the concrete.

Truckloads of stones chips and sand were being transported to the site. It was gathered that the Chinese company renovating the irrigation canals has been tasked with the reconstruction.

Farmers, who declined to be identified, in an interview praised authorities for taking action to get the facility rebuilt. They however expressed worry over the timing of the work, saying the rains may disrupt the progress of work. They pleaded with authorities to increase the number of contractors to tackle the work they described as huge.

"It’s a good thing the work has started but how sure are we that the rain won’t come and stop the work. They should have started this work earlier like somewhere in April. That way, they would have had enough time to start and possibly complete it,” said a farmer.

Another farmer said, “the work on this spillway is not going to be easy. Taking the concrete floor from the side along can take months. Yes, it can take months because they are going to remove everything. So it will be best if the government brings more contractors to do it proper and fast”.

Attempts to get the contractor to give details of the project and time of completion was unsuccessful.