The Ashaiman Irrigation Farmers Co-operative Society (AIFCS) has appealed to the government and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector to eject encroachers along the Ashaiman irrigation dam as their activities threaten the dam. The Ashaiman Irrigation Scheme, which has been in existence for the past 40 years is under the threat of being dried up as encroachers have developed the banks of the dam into human settlements. The scheme has a potential area of 155 hectares of which 97 hectares have been developed into rice and vegetable farms. Mr Ben Kanati, Secretary of the farmers' society who made the appeal at a press conference on Friday said apart from building houses, schools and churches on the banks of the dam, the encroachers also discharge waste water into it. "Whereas roads leading to the scheme have been turned into a refuse dump and a place for defecation, the wire fencing on the boundaries provided by the Japan International Co-operation Agency have also been removed," he stated. Mr Kanati said members of the task force formed by the farmers to guide the area were assaulted on several occasions by the encroachers. He stated that the farmers, numbering over 100 pay returns to the Ashaiman Irrigation Centre bi-annually for the use of the scheme, adding that the lack of a lasting solution to the activities of the encroachers by the Centre was a worry to them. The secretary indicated that the scheme, which was a model one, has a research centre which served 22 projects of the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA). He added that, the milling machine at the scheme milled over 2400 tones of paddy (un-milled) rice from Afife, Okyreko and the Afram plains every year. Stressing on the need for an action to be taken, Mr Kanati further said "farmers from the scheme produce rice seeds for the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to be distributed to some farmers in the country making the dam beneficial to the whole country". Mr Simon Apio, Deputy Director of the Ashaiman Irrigation Centre responding to the issues raised by the farmers after the press conference confirmed the activities of the encroachers. Mr Apio said his outfit mostly seeks the help of the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) and the police to arrest encroachers but that has not deterred them. Meanwhile some of the encroachers stated that they acquired the land legally from the Ashaiman chief.Source: GNA