The spillage of the Bagre dam which started on 23rd of August in Burkina Faso will not have any effect on the citizens of Ghana especially those who live along the White Volta basins because the spillage is going to be gradual this year. Mr. Oudraogo Nexime, Director of Production of the Bagre Dam who revealed this at the Bagre Dam site on Saturday said the spillage started with only one valve at the pace of 300 cubic metres per seconds stressing that the dam had not reached its maximum stage of spillage at 235 cubic metres deep at the time of spillage. He explained that the spillage started at 228 cubic meters noting that it was spilt on slowly for security reasons and in order not to cause havoc to the people who live along the water basins, both in Burkina Faso and Ghana. Mr. Nexime said this on Saturday at Bagre in the Republic of Burkina Faso when he took the Ghanaian authorities round the dam to see for themselves the rate of the spillage of the dam and its likely effect on the people. The Ghanaian delegation was led by Mr. Mark Owen Woyongo, Upper East Regional Minister, Alhaji Gilbert Iddi, Chief Executive Officer of the SADA and some District Chief Executives in the Upper East Region. The spillage of the Bagre dam over the years has been causing devastating effects to lives and property in Ghana. Two years ago when it was spilt, eleven people lost their lives as a result of the flood that followed while several parcel of farm lands were destroyed including livestock. It will be recalled that before the spillage, the Upper East Regional Minister Mr. Mark Owen Woyongo entreated people to move from the lower areas of the White Volta basin to higher grounds and to harvest their grounds to avoid any calamity. Mr. Nexime assured the Ghanaian authorities that the Bagre spillage will henceforth be spilt at a reasonable rate so that the citizens of both countries do not suffer as a result of its spillage and noted that effective collaboration will be enhanced. Mr. Woyongo expressed gratitude to the Burkinabe authorities for their humanitarian interventions and said unlike two years ago when the two of the four volts were opened, only one was opened this year adding that “this will not have any effect on people along the water basin”. He said plans were far advanced to construct similar dam in Ghana at Pwulugu in the Upper East Region to harvest the spillage water from the Bagre dam to be used for multi-purpose functions including agricultural and hydro electrical generation. He commended the Burkinabe authorities for making good use of the dam for the benefit of the people in that country who have been cultivating cereals along the dam and improving their lives adding that ‘Ghana will copy from the good example’. Alhaji Gilbert Iddi, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) announced that the Government in collaboration with the World Bank will start the feasibility study on the Pwulugu dam construction soon and officially begin the construction in 2014. He said funding had already been secured for the feasibility study of the project and noted that the project was going to take a period of four years from 2012 to 2018 when it will be completed but added that the cost of the project was not yet known. Alhaji Iddi said SADA will collaborate with the Ministry of Information, the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) to begin educating the people living along the White Volta to move upwards as the immediate measure. He said the authority is also considering dredging the water basin to ensure that even if the Bagre is spilt at larger quantities, it will not affect the people. The Bagre dam was constructed from 1989 and completed in 1992 with the World Bank funding at the cost of 67 billion CFA France. It contains seven billion cubic meters of water and produces 450,000 tons of agricultural produce of cereals of various kind benefiting 3,325 families of farmers aimed at fighting food insecurity. It is the biggest dam of Burkina Faso with 40 meters deep, 400km long and 90km wide and has 40,000 to 80,000 arable land but currently only 4,000 hectares was being utilized. It produces 20,000 tons of rice annually and produces hydro electricity with two turbines with 16 kilo volts capacity with an intention to diversify its activities for the benefit of the people