The Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Dapaah, has hinted that the Vea/Gowrie water treatment plant and the vea dam in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region will soon be rehabilitated.
She said government was looking at various options to secure funding support to have the project comprehensively rehabilitated to serve both agricultural and industrial purposes to improve on livelihoods.
The Minister made the assertion when she paid a working visit to the water treatment plant and the vea irrigation dam site.
The Vea Irrigation project, constructed in 1965 has not witnessed any major rehabilitation leading to the broken down of most of the canals and laterals that carry water to the various farms.
The dam, since its inception has supplied water to several communities including Vea, Bongo, Nyariga, Yorogo, Yorogo-Gabisi, Dindubisi, Bolgatanga, Zaare, Yikene, Gowrie, and Sumbrungu as well as provide treated water to the entire Bolgatanga Municipality and its environs.
As a result of the bad siltation and deteriorating nature of the dam, it has thrown about 4,000 farmers out of business, particularly those who engage in dry season farming, as the famers could no longer access water from the dam to continue their farming activities and improve on their livelihoods.
It is recalled however that in 2015, government secured funding from the World Bank to rehabilitate about four dams including the Vea Dam, but nothing has been done in terms of rehabilitation work.
Earlier this year, the farmers were given assurance of possible rehabilitation works to begin and the situation compelled many farmers not to farm during the raining season due to the fear that their crops would be destroyed when the rehabilitation works start.
This has led to the farmers expressing their frustrations and disappointments at government’s inability to honor its promises.
The Bolgatanga Municipality operates a conventional system where water is extracted from the Vea dam and treated at the Vea/Gowrie treatment plant which has a design capacity of 7,200 m3/day.
However, actual daily production is only about 5,500m3. In addition to the conventional system, GWCL operates 4No. mechanized boreholes which are all located in Zuarungu near Bolgatanga.
The total output from these boreholes is about 400m3/day. This brings the total production figure for the Bolgatanga District to about 5,900m3 per day.
The number of water connections for Bolgatanga municipality is 7,694 comprising of 6,142 active connections and 1,552 inactive connections.
The daily demand for Bolgatanga is about 9,000m3 while actual production is only about 5,900m3, water is therefore rationed sometimes in the municipality.
Mrs. Dapaah in an interview with GBC24, revealed that plans are far advanced for the water project to be rehabilitated and commended GWCL works in the area for their commitment in maintaining the equipment.
The Sanitation and Water Resources Minister stated that the Vea Irrigation project was a national project and added that government was committed to seeing that the project was fully rehabilitated to improve on agriculture production and standards of living in the area and the country as a whole.
Samuel Ayammah’s report
