U/E: Professor Frimpong Boateng cuts sod for rehabilitation of Adaboya dam

The Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng has cut the sod for the rehabilitation of the Adaboya dam in the Bongo district of the Upper East Region.

The dam that provides water for domestic use and irrigation farming has not been desilted for years resulting in low water yield to serve its intended purpose.

Speaking at the sod cutting ceremony in Adaboya, Prof. Boateng said, the $140,000 rehabilitation project is expected to be completed in August 2019.

He said, under the project, the embankment of the dam will be increased, spillway reconstructed and the reservoir expanded to contain enough water for all-year-round farming.

Prof. Boateng added that existing canals will be repaired and worn-off canals replaced to allow easy access of water by farmers engaged in dry season farming.

The rehabilitation project is funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) adaptation fund under its $8m climate change intervention project in 50 communities in Northern Ghana over a 4-year period.

Assistant Resident Representative of UNDP in Ghana, Louis Kuukpen, said, beneficiary communities are benefitting from mechanized boreholes, rehabilitation of dams, afforestation, beekeeping, fish farming among other economic ventures to improve their livelihoods.

“We are rehabilitating 10 dams, drilled 100 boreholes and supporting communities in trees planting as a measure to mitigate the negative impact of climate change.”

We are also supporting particularly women in livelihood programmes such as bee-keeping, dry season farming and fish farming”.

For their part, some residents of the community told Citi News, the rehabilitation project when completed will serve as an income generation opportunity and reduce rural-urban migration.

Some residents to Citi News “when the rehabilitation of the dam is completed, we will go into dry season farming of vegetables and some selected crops to generate income to support our children and families. We will no longer travel down south in search of greener pastures”.

Source: citinewsroom.com/Ghana