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Adaboya dam undergoing rehabilitation

Government has handed over a broken down dam at Adaboya in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region to a contractor for rehabilitation.

The rehabilitation formed part of the Adaptation Fund’s projects which had earmarked a numbers of broken down dams in 50 selected communities across the five regions of the northern Ghana for rehabilitation, to alleviate the peoples’ vulnerability to climate change.

Performing the ground breaking ceremony at Adaboya last Friday, the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, said apart from the Adaboya community,  there were other selected  beneficiary communities in the region which included  the  Bawku Municipal, Bawku West  and Builsa South districts.

Professor Boateng said the project was in consonance with the government’s One Village One Dam Project, and hoped it would help the community members to do all year round farming and prevent them from travelling to the southern parts of the country in search of non-existence jobs.

He said under the project, the beneficiary communities were being empowered and supported to establish fish ponds and nursery to enable them grow trees to deal with the climate change issues.

The Project Coordinator in charge of the Adaptation Fund, Peter Dery, explained that the project involved the rehabilitation of 20 major dams, repair of cannels, and de-silting of water sources to enable them collect more water during the rainy season as well as the planting of tress near water banks to preserve and create the needed moisture for more rains.

Mr Dery who is also the Deputy Director of MESTI, added that the project component included the drilling of boreholes, installation of solar irrigation systems, creation of buffer zones with fence, community wood lot, creation of fire belts, and the building of capacity of women groups in shea butter and groundnut oil extraction.

“It is expected that the project would help the community members in and around Tamalugu, Lumbaya, Tampion, Ko-Gbafio, Kakiase, Goli, Bugubele, AdaboyaTakpo and Kasiesa, to conserve their water resources and be able to use them for their livelihoods and other productive activities,” he stressed.

He said erratic rainfall coupled with the harsh weather, which always dried up most of the water resources of the area, were the major climate impact of the five regions of the north, and expressed optimism that the project would help ameliorate the situation.

Mr Dery stated that the project was being funded with an amount of eight million dollars from the Adaptation Fund Board of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The UNDP Assistant Resident Representative, Louis Kuukpen, explained that the Climate Change Interventions  Project, which begun in 2015, and expected to end in 2020, was being implemented by the UNDP in partnership with MESTI.

He said the UNDP was happy that the project was making some significant gains in the areas of the attainment of some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly climate change and environmental degradation.

The Chief of Adaboya, Naba Osman Atampugre, who commended the implementing and the donor partners, said, if the contractor was able to finish the project within the six month schedule, it would help the community a lot, especially  in doing all year round farming and providing water for livestock, and building activities.

FROM SAMUEL AKAPULE, ADABOYA

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