Minority Questions Funding For Pwalugu Multi-Purpose Irrigation Dam

The Minority in Parliament is questioning the source of funding for the recent $993 million Pwalugu Multi-Purpose Dam project in the Talensi District.

President Nana Akufo-Addo last week cut the sod for the project touting it as the single largest investment by any government in the Northern part of the country.

President Akufo-Addo stated that the cost will be borne entirely by Government and executed and constructed under an engineering, procurement and construction contract by Sinohydro.

He also said the project will be executed within 50 months.

But the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, says the project is not captured in the 2020 budget and demanded the source of funding for the project.

“I see no paragraph nor page nor sentence [in the 2020 budget] dedicated to the pursuit of this $993 million. The public financial management Act requires that all expenditures are approved thereof as part of the budget statement.”

About the dam

The Pwalugu Multipurpose project will consist of three main components, namely the construction of a hydropower plant; the construction of a solar farm; and the establishment of an irrigation scheme covering an area of some twenty-five thousand (25,000) hectares.

The Pwalugu reservoir can accommodate up to 120,000 cages of 25 square metres each of fish, with an average yield of two tons per cage, making possible the continuous development of the country's aquaculture and fisheries sector.

The project is set to be the single, largest investment ever made by any Government in the Northern sector of the country.

The Volta River Authority says the project will commence in April 2020.

The entire project will be executed by a Chinese construction firm, Power China International and supervised by the Volta River Authority over a period of five years.

The irrigation component of the project will cost $474,042,141.85.

The tax component of the project is $69,284,727.79 and there is also a cadastral survey cost of $800,000.00.

The contract is going to be under Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) at a cost of $473,242,141.85.

The electricity component of the project will consist of $366 million, 60MW hydropower and a $55.4 million, 50MW solar power while resettlement, survey and project management cost will amount to $98 million.

---citinewsroom