FOOD, AGRICULTURE & COCOA AFFAIRS SELECT C’TTEE INSPECTS T.I.S 24th SEPTEMBER, 2020

 The Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs Select Committee of Ghana’s Parliament, has charged the Management and operators of the Tono Irrigation Scheme [T.I.S] to do their possible best to make the Scheme competitive and attractive enough so as to bring on board well-resourced investors for the ultimate benefit of farmers in the area.

Hon. C'ttee Members at the briefing

 

This charge among other observations was made at Bolgatanga, capital of the Upper East Region after Management and partners of the Scheme made presentations to give an insight to members of the Committee before a field inspection of ongoing modernisation and major rehabilitation works on the Irrigation Scheme. The Committee had already paid similar inspection tours to the Kpong Irrigation Scheme and the Kpong Left Bank Irrigation Project about a fortnight ago.

Member of Parliament for the Kintampo North Constituency Hon. Kwasi Etu-Bonde for instance, asked whether proper land documentation for the Scheme’s catchment area was done and if the original land owners were duly compensated as the Committee had learnt of some petty land issues between some communities and Management of the Scheme. Meanwhile other Committee members also called for an elaborate sustainability plan to be instituted so that the Scheme does not run into problems after the contract was completed and handed over.    

A Presentation By GCAP

In his response, Managing Director of the T.I.S Dr. Benedict Bonaventure Aligebam, said records available at the Lands Commission indicated that, the land so acquired by government was properly documented and duly compensated over several decades ago. He added that the Navrongo Customary Land Secretariat could also show proof that such compensation was indeed paid.

Giving further information on the Tono Scheme, the Managing Director disclosed that the Scheme, located in Navrongo in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality, was constructed between 1975 and 1985 and had since then not undergone any comprehensive maintenance. On behalf of Management and the Scheme’s farmers, he commended government for the current major rehabilitation and modernisation works including but not limited to the improvement/repair works on the dam’s wall, crest road and spillway retaining wall and chute, replacement/repair of concrete lining on the Main Gravity Canal [MGC] and the Left as well as Right Bank Canals and the demarcation of the Tono lakeshore buffer zone.

A Look At The Project area

According to Dr. Aligebam, all these works in addition to the development of solar pumping stations and drip irrigation on Zones ‘O’ and ‘B’, canal automation and instrumentation, repair of Project roads and structure crossings and improvement of restricted drainage areas among others are all estimated to cost the Government of Ghana some 31 million US Dollars. He revealed that the Tono Scheme has a gross area of 3,860 hectares of which 2,490 hectares have been developed for irrigation with a total of approximately 4,000 small scale farmers from eight villages being the beneficiaries.

When the Committee members stopped to inspect ongoing works on the 500 metres long and 60 metres wide spillway of the dam which got damaged in the October 2019 floods, Irrigation Engineer Mr. Thomas Odonkor working with Top International Engineering Corporation, contractor of the project said, the current spilling of the dam had slowed down work but gave assurance that by November 30, 2020, automation works would have been completed.

Available C'ttee Chair speaking at the spillway

Here, the Available Committee Chairman and Member of Parliament for Achiasi in the Eastern Region, Hon. Robert Kwasi Amoah called for the construction of an additional spillway and an outlet valve to be installed to aid in emergency spilling of excess waters whenever authorities notice water levels that threaten the structural integrity of the dam in order to forestall future damage.  

 Meanwhile at the Bornia end of the Scheme’s canals layout, Mr. Osei Owusu Agyemang, the National Coordinator of the Ghana Commercial Agriculture Project [GCAP] in his remarks, noted that water was a very key resource in the effective execution of farming and other agricultural activities but yet, very finite in its form. He disclosed that among the chief objectives of GCAP is to promote commercial agriculture thereby ensuring that, farmers were able to ply their trade throughout the year in order to be able to cater for families as well as have dependable sources of livelihoods.