Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has reiterated government’s absolute commitment to construct the Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam to serve as a permanent solution to the perennial flooding experienced each year in North.

Addressing separate gatherings as part of a tour to the flood-affected communities in the Upper East Region, Dr Bawunia said when the project is completed, it will harvest the volumes of water spilt from the Bagre Dam each year.

For the past few weeks, the Upper East Region and the North East Region have experienced flooding from the spillage of the Bagre dam as well as torrential rains leading to the loss of 10 lives in both regions and the destruction of properties including many homes and hectares of farmlands.

The flood which has been brought on by the spillage of the Bagre and Kompienga Dams in Burkina Faso, which passes through the White Volta, has created a large gorge near the Kobore Bridge in the Bawku West District, has cut off commute from the Bawku enclave from to Zebilla and Bolgatanga, the regional capital.

On Thursday, the flood also submerged portions of the main Bolgatanga-Tamale highway, about two kilometres from the Pwalugu Bridge, thereby preventing people from accessing Bolgatanga from North East Region.

According to Dr Bawumia, the construction of the Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam would effectively curb the annual disaster and assured the people of the regions that work had already begun on the project.

“To deal with this problem fundamentally, we have to have a flood control mechanism in the context of the Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam project, that is the most important antidote to all these problems and that is why we have moved and secured the Pwalugu dam project.

“This Pwalugu dam has a flood control element as well as irrigation and power generation element and this project is going be the biggest single investment in northern Ghana since independence, it is about a billion dollars,” Dr Bawumia added.

The Vice President, who visited Kobore, where the road had been cut off observed the effect of the floods on the affected areas in Upper East and North Regions from a helicopter.

He also interacted with the chiefs and people of Anateem Community in the Bolgatanga Municipality where about 50 people had been displaced by the torrential rains and were currently being sheltered in a primary school.

The Vice President on behalf of government donated some relief items including soap, rice, blankets, mattresses, water, cups, basins, used clothes, mats and oil among others as well as cash amount of ¢10,000.00 to the affected victims.

Dr Bawumia as part of his two-day working visit to the region further inspected works on the reconstruction of the Tono Dam spillway channel in the Kassena-Nankana Municipal which got broken in October, 2019 after several days of heavy torrential rainfall.

The Operations Manager of Irrigation Company of Upper Region (ICOUR) Mr Sabastian Bagina, noted that the spillway was about 60 metres wide and 500 metres long and assured that the contractor would move back to the site when the water receded.

Mr Bagna who explained that about 400,000 farmers directly benefit from the Tono Irrigation Project noted that “the contractor has been on the ground working to try and protect the control structure itself before any spillage and he was able to achieve that to some extent before spillage started about five days ago”.

The Vice President was accompanied by, Director General of NADMO, Mr Eric Nana Agyemang Prempeh, Minister of State for Agriculture, Dr Nurah Kwaku, Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways Mr Anthony Karbo, Minister for the Interior Mr Ambrose Dery, Ghana Ambassador to Morocco, Mr Stephen Mahamudu Yakubu, the Upper East Regional Minister Madam Tangoba Abayage, among other government officials.