GNA Special Correspondents; Paul Achonga Kwode & Samuel Akapule Bagre, Burkina Faso

Bagre, Aug. 26, GNA –The Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), at the weekend successfully brokered a deal with the Burkinaba authorities on the spillage of the Bagre Dam to ensure that anytime the spillage was to be done, adequate information would be readily provided to reduce the negative impact.

Part of the bilateral agreement was also to ensure that this year's spillage and future ones were not done rashly but gradual spillage of one valve out of the five at a time with gradual increase in stages to prevent floods that had often been associated with the dam's spillage.

Alhaji Gilbert Seidu Iddi, Chief Executive Officer of SADA and Mr Mark Owen Woyongo, Upper East Regional Minister, negotiated and secured the deal on behalf of Ghana while Mr M. Allahidi DIALLO, Governor of the Central East Region of Burkina Faso and Mr Oudraogo Nexime, Director of Production of the Bagre Dam stood in for Burkina Faso.

The bilateral talks was necessitated by the fact that each time the Bagre Dam was spilt, it caused havoc and destruction to lives and property in Ghana and as such anytime it was due for spillage, farmers and communities living along the White Volta basin began to panic.

It will be recalled that in 2010 when the Bagre Dam was spilt, 11 people in Ghana lost their lives while several parcels of farm lands were submerged including livestock bringing hardship to farmers and their families.

Mr Nexime explained that this year's spillage started on the 23rd of August at a slow pace of 300 cubic meters per second with only one valve stressing that the dam had not reached its maximum stage of spillage at 235 cubic meters deep at the time of spillage.

He said the spillage started at 228 cubic meters to forstore security concerns of the communities along its basin so it would not cause havoc to the people, both in Burkina Faso and Ghana.

Alhaji Iddi commended the Burkinaba authorities for their willingness to collaborate with Ghana in such instances and stressed the need for Ghana to learn from the good example of the Bagre Dam which is not only providing hydro electricity at 16 kilo volts but provides agricultural activities including fishing.

He said very soon a feasibility study would begin on the Pwulugu Dam construction with funding from the World Bank while full scale construction would begin in 2014 and completed in 2018 as was done at Bagre.

Alhaji Iddi said immediate measures to educate the people along the basin of the tributaries of the dam would commence soon by SADA in collaboration with the Ministry of Information and the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) to sensitize the people.

Mr Mark Woyongo stressed the need for the Pwulugu Dam, which he said would contribute to the unemployment situation of the country and emphasized the need for effective collaboration between the two countries for mutual interest.

Construction of the Bagre Dam started in 1989 and was completed in 1992 with the World Bank funding at the cost of 67 billion CFA Franc. It contains seven billion cubic meters of water and produces 450,000 tons of agricultural produce of cereals of various kinds benefiting 3,325 families of farmers aimed at fighting food insecurity.

It is the biggest dam in Burkina Faso with of 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 of 16 kilo volts capacity with an intention to diversify its activities for the benefit of the people.

GNA