[ 2021-02-19 ]

427 dams, 42 warehouses were completed under my tenure – Hawa Koomson
The defunct Special Development Initiatives
Ministry was able to construct some 427 dams and
42 warehouses under various projects; its former
Minister, Mavis Hawa Koomson has said.

Madam Koomson who is now the ministerial nominee
for Fisheries and Aquaculture made the observation
during her vetting in Parliament on Thursday,
February 18, 2021.

She noted that although the Ministry had a target
to achieve per its developmental project agenda,
it was unable to finish all as planned and that
those that were successfully completed are being
put to good use.

Touching specifically about the dams, Hawa Koomson
said “our target was to construct 560 dams
because one constituency had no site for the dams.
There are about 471 active sites and 427 have been
fully completed.”

The Minister-Designate explained that although
they promised to construct dams under the “One
Village, One Dam project” it was impossible to
give every village a dam within four years.

“There are more than 5, 0000 villages across the
Northern Region and there was no way we could
finish constructing 5,000 dams in four years. We,
therefore, set a target of 10 dams in each
constituency”, she added.

Warehouses
The construction of warehouses was part of the
government’s “One District, One Warehouse”
initiative under the Infrastructure for Poverty
Eradication Programme (IPEP) to among other things
reduce post-harvest losses.

The provision of storage was to essentially ensure
a continuous flow of agriculture produce, create
opportunities along the agriculture value chain
and also support the implementation of
government’s “Planting for Food and Jobs”
initiative.

But providing an update on the level of progress
thus far on the project, the former Minister said,
42 of such facilities have seen total completion
nationwide.

“Our target was to build 50 warehouses. As I
speak, 42 have been fully completed and eight
others were between 80 and 90 per cent done as of
October 2020 when I got a report from the
consultant. The completed ones include one in
Sandema, two in Tamale and two in Techiman. Eight
has also been completed in the Western and
Western North Regions.”

Source - Citinewsroom

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