VRA Trust Fund spends over GHc101,701 on projects in E/R

Amankwakrom (E/R), Oct. 1, GNA - The Volta River Authority (VRA) Resettlement

Trust Fund has initiated 30 projects in its 52 resettlement sites in the country. It has spent over GHc101,701 on projects at the resettlement communities in the

Eastern Region alone since 2009. Mr Andrew Tonto Barfour, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the VRA

Resettlement Trust Fund, disclosed this at the inauguration of a GHc 60,163 nurses

quarters and the renovation of the VRA Resettlement Clinic at Amankwakrom i= n the Afram

Plains at the weekend. He said since the establishment of the VRA Resettlement Trust Fund in 1996, it had

undertaken many projects in all the 52 resettlement communities across the country. Mr Barfour mentioned the projects to include 39 kindergartens, 52 primary school

blocks, 43 Junior High School blocks, three teacher's quarters, 10 clinic= s, two nurses'

quarters, 82 boreholes 15 small town water systems, 66 10-seater KVIPs and eight

community centres. He said the structures built by the VRA and the Trust Fund in all the communities had

been rehabilitated with the aim of helping to improve the living conditions of the

inhabitants of the communities concerned. Mr Barfour explained that the biggest challenge facing the fund was inadequate finance

because the source of money for the fund was only 500,000 dollars contribution to the

fund annually by the VRA. He explained that the fund was not responsible for the payment of compensation to

the landlords who offered their lands for the creation of the settlement. Mr Barfour said by a recent Court ruling, the Government was responsible for the

settlement of all compensation and therefore advised traditional authoritie= s who had those

issues to take it up with the Lands Commission. The Member of Parliament for Afram Plains North, Mr Emmanuel Aboagye Didieye,

promised to support the health centre with malaria drugs and appealed to th= e people to

visit the clinic when sick before the disease got out of hand. He appealed for the provision of DSTV facility at the nurses' quarte= rs to enable nurses

posted to work at the clinic to enjoy their stay at the place.

In a speech read on his behalf, the Kwahu North District Chief Executive, Mr Ibrahim

Issaka, appealed to the chiefs and people in the community to see the project as their own

and take good care of it so that it would benefit the whole District. He appealed to the Trust Fund to consider the provision of potable water drawn from

the Volta Lake to the clinic because no matter the depth to which a borehol= e was sunk in

the area, it dried up during the long dry season. The District Director of Health Services, Mr Robert Kwaku Ababio, in a speech read on

his behalf, called for the provision of a laboratory and wards in the near future to help

upgrade the facility to support the District Hospital at DonkorKrom. He explained that having more well equipped hospitals, clinics and adequate staff was

one of the major ways of bringing quality health care to the doorsteps of the people in the

District. The Chairman of the VRA Resettlement Town Development Committee, Mr Godwin

Sodze, called for the rehabilitation of their quarters, re-gravelling of th= e streets leading to

the area and the provision of street lights. The Chairman of the function, Barimah Kuntu Sakyi IV, Nkamihene of Kwahu

Traditional Area, observed that some traditional authorities who offered their lands for the

construction of the resettlement communities had fully received their compensation while

others had not yet received anything. He therefore appealed to the Trust Fund to take that situation into consideration in the

provision of amenities.