Gambibgo Community Gets Dam for Dry Season Farming

Gambibgo (U/E), May 11, GNA - The people of Gambibgo, near Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region, would by the beginning of the next dry season around November, undertake dry season irrigation using a dam currently under construction.

The 650-metre-long and seven metres deep dam can hold 220 million litres of water and would irrigate about 50 hectares of land during the first farming period.

Mr. Sadik Ayine Inusah, Coordinating Director of Gambibgo-Ghana Project, a local NGO based in at Gambibgo, said this when he led reporters on a familiarization tour of the project.

He said the project, comprising a fish pond, tree planting and block moulding, cost a total of 1.4 billion cedis, and was being sponsored by the government of the Netherlands, the Rabo Bank Foundation, and Wilde Ganzen Organization also of the Netherlands. Mr. Inusah said the community was providing labour as well as planting trees and "vertivera" grass on the banks of the dam, to prevent erosion.

Mr. Jan Snell, a Dutch citizen representing the sponsors, said 300 women in the community had been given credit facilities to undertake small-scale income- generating activities, while plans were under way to build a training centre for the youth. The centre would be used to train the youth in basket and cloth weaving, carpentry and dress making.