A Senior Government spokesperson and Public relations Officer for the Pwalugu Hydro Dam and Irrigation Project, David Prah has said that the dam will help tackle the flooding caused by the Bagre Dam spillage.
On November 29, 2019, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, cut the sod for the construction of the Pwalugu Multi-Purpose Dam Project.
The project, which is the single largest investment ever made in the Northern part of Ghana, and estimated to cost US$993 million, would consist of a Hydro-Solar hybrid system of 60 MW Hydro Power and 50 MW Solar Power.
The two technologies are expected to complement each other to provide reliable and stable electricity supply to the national grid. The Project would also provide an irrigation scheme covering an area of Twenty-Five Thousand (25,000) hectares and improve water supply to the Northern parts of the country.
In addition, the Multi-Purpose Dam, expected to be completed in four years, would control the perennial flooding in the Northern regions caused by heavy rains and the spillage from the Bagre Dam.
Asked whether the dam in any state is ready to help in the light of the Bagre Dam spillage, Mr Prah told 3FM’s Eric Mawuena Egbeta on the midday news on Tuesday, August 24 that “In this case, we may not say yes or no.
“The duration for the project from 2020 is four years, so now what we are doing is land acquisition and demarcation of dam boundaries.
“The dam itself covers 360kilomters square and 8 districts.
“So now what we are doing is land acquisition. We have almost gone through with the hydro component. We are now at the irrigation site which is West Mamprusi.
“The contractors are on-site those who are doing the stakeholder engagement are on site.”
The annual spillage of the Bagre and Kompienga dams in Burkina Faso is expected to be carried on from August 27 to August 30, 2020.
According to an official spillage update from Sonabel Energy, as of yesterday August 23, 2020, the water level at Bagre Dam was 233.99 meters with a filling rate of 86.51% which is almost getting to a spillage level.
The spillage level is from 234.73 meters to 235 meters depending on the filling rate.
The office of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) in the Upper East Region is currently sensitizing farmers and residents closer to the White and Black Volta to relocate to higher grounds.
Farmers are also encouraged to harvest some of their farm produce to avoid losing everything to the pending floods.
