The Northern Development Forum (NDF), an advocacy group for the integrated development of the five regions of Northern Ghana, has held a press conference at their office on the delay and abandonment of the Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam Project (PMD) for the Suame Interchange Project, three years after the project’s launch.
The PMD, which has been described by the government as “the largest investment ever made by any government in the northern part of the country,” has been described as a multipurpose one because it has been designed to resolve perennial devastating floods caused by spillage from the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso, provide a reliable water source for dry-season agriculture, and double as a source of hydro-power coupled with a solar component.
The project was also intended to open up massive opportunities for the socioeconomic transformation of Northern Ghana in particular, and Ghana in general.
According to the Tim-Tooni Naa of Dagbon, Hajia Sawuratu Alhassan, the NDF was met with utter surprise when they visited the two major project sites, the dam site at Kurugu and the irrigation development site at Sariba, seeing only a heap of chippings purportedly meant for the construction.
On proceeding to the irrigation development site, off the Wulugu-Kpasenkpe road, the team found a well-built work camp with comfortable dormitories, workshops, and dining facilities, large enough to accommodate over 300 workers, large piles of concrete blocks, and only one (1) worker on site with no equipment or machinery whatsoever.
Hajia Sawuratu Alhassan added that they were informed that the contractor withdrew from the site in May 2022, following the award of a new contract to them to build an interchange in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.
She asked the government why work on the Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam has been abandoned and why the contractor has been deployed to a new government project site when he has not completed a previous government contract that commenced three (3) years ago.
Hajia Sawuratu also questioned the source of funding for the Suame Project and why the government could not obtain funding for the PMD projects, “which would change the lives of over four million people in that catchment area.”
She further described as unequal, unfair, and unequitable the treatment meted out to the region in the distribution of national resources.
“The North was promised a completed transformational project in 50 months. Unfortunately, 36 months down the line, there is very little hope regarding the continuation, let alone the completion, of the project. We therefore appeal to the government to redeem the promise made to the people of Northern Ghana by resuming work on the project,” she added.
