The social, economic, and humanitarian challenges people along the banks of river Volta and the communities are going through the spillage from the dam could have been avoided if the New Patriotic Party government had initiated the construction of the Pwalugu dam at the Northern part of the country to serve as a reservoir for the up streams spillage from Bagri dam and the heavy rains in the catchment area.
The Deputy Director of Election Mr. Mahdi Jibril discloses this on Adekyee Mu Nsem on Ahotor 92.3 FM IN Accra and hosted by Citizen Kofi Owusu.
He said, historically Volta River Authority started work on the Pwalugu Dam as far as the early nineties when it conducted pre-feasibility studies on potential hydro sites in the White, Black, and Oti River Basins. While loans were approved in parliament for the commencement of the project, he said the challenge we are going through as a result of the spillage from the dam can be described as negligence on the part of the government and VRA.
He reiterated that the current project activities on the Pwalugu dam started as far back in 2013 when VRA, with financial support from the Agence Francaise de Development of France and technical support from the World Bank, initiated a feasibility study as well as an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for the construction of a Multi-Purpose Dam and Irrigation Scheme.
VRA completed the feasibility study in 2018 and has proceeded to the implementation phase of the project.
He bemoaned the NPP government’s knee-jerk attitude to initiate the project on time to forestall the economic and humanitarian hardship the affected people and communities are going through.
The Deputy Director of Election Mr. Mahdi Jibril condemned President Nana Akufo-Addo’s position for not attaching an attitude of urgency to the plight people and communities are going through, especially in these difficult times of poverty and hard economic hardship.
He further stated that the president and his party’s attention is on their internal elections where even ballot boxes are sent to these affected communities for their presidential primaries.
Touching on the social media issues and suggestions from the Electoral Commission and Minister of Interior Albert Ken-Dapaah, said is bizarre and strange since is the same Jean Mensah who said she is going to use the social media platforms to reach Ghanaians in all her communications protocols.
He asked why this sudden change; he asked, saying he believes the government and the state institutions are colluding to carry out a scandalous agenda to rig the 2024 elections.
H opined that the state institutions can only be accountable in all fairness if they can reach and communicate with them with ease and freely speak their minds in our country since the country set off on this journey on the path of democracy.
He is of the view that communications through social media handles, where content, business, and other issues are done; serve as a primary platform in all democracies globally.
Controlling it in any form will be unfortunate and can lead to instability in the country, as we have experienced in other countries in recent times which try to control social media.
Story by: AYM Kukah E:mail kukahalexander7@gmail.com
