REGIONAL HOSP. WORKS TO CONTINUE IN WEEKS, HYDRO-POWER DAM STARTING SOON

BY PETER ATOGEWE WEDAM, DISTRICT INFORMATION OFFICER - BONGO   16^th February, 2019

The phase three of the redevelopment works at the Upper East Regional hospital, located in the capital, Bolgatanga, will commence in the coming weeks as the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo led-government has secured funding for the progression of the stalled project.

Upper East Regional Minister, Hon. Paulina Patience Abayage who disclosed this at a Press Soiree organised by the Regional Coordinating Council and held at the Residency on Saturday, stated categorically that, she had conferred with the Health Minister days ago and was told the government had gotten as much as 20 Million US Dollars from the Saudi Fund for injection into the project.

Upper East Regional Minister, Hon. Paulina Patience Abayage

She acknowledged that governance was a continuum and recalled that this particular project began under the Prez. John Kufuor regime and later handed over to the John Mahama administration which also did its bit before exiting office in 2016. She however gave the strongest indication yet that, the current government had no reason to truncate the redevelopment works of the hospital as health was a very essential matter that could not be sacrificed on altar of partisan politics.

The Regional Minister who was also one-time, Ghana’s Ambassador to Italy, hinted that, the Minister for Health will be in Upper East in the next fortnight to commission the phase three works and for that matter, the continuation of the project. She noted that, over the past 10 or so years, the medical equipment and other logistics at the Regional Hospital had become obsolete in the modern times. She thus expressed optimism that, the completion of the additional works will bring about a re-tooling of the hospital and position it effectively to handle call-in medical needs of the region’s people as well as accommodate any emergencies.

Hon. Abayage also revealed that President Nana Addo’s Cabinet recently gave clearance for the utilisation of 700 Million US Dollars to kick-start the construction of the multipurpose Pwalugu Hydro-Power dam, located in the Talensi District of the region. She noted that, funding for the project had been secured and stressed that, she had no fears the project would start smoothly and run to a successfully completion. She explained that upon completion which should be before the end of term of President Nana Addo, the dam will be in position to collect excess water from the annual spillage of the Bagre Dam in upstream Burkina Faso and also, double as an irrigation facility for all-year-round farming in the area.

Touching on road network in the region, the Regional Minister announced that, a total of 1,281.55 kilometres of roads were currently receiving major interventions including bitumen surfacing, rehabilitation and spot improvement under government’s emergency projects through the Department of Feeder Roads. Additionally, 1,755.2 kilometres stretch of roads were also under consideration for reshaping, construction of culverts and sectional re-gravelling. Meanwhile, 71 kilometres of road network under the Department of Urban Roads have also been awarded and were at different stages of completion in the Bolgatanga, Navrongo, Zuarungu and Bawku areas.

While giving assurance to the public that the contractor in charge of the traffic switching system in the regional capital was being pursued to return to site to rectify the faulty traffic lights, she disclosed that four major bridges including the Garu-Tempane, Kulungugu, Doninga and one over the Sisli River were all being considered for awards and subsequent works to be completed within the year.

Focusing on Agriculture, the Regional Minister disclosed that a total of 206 motorbikes and 15 bicycles were received and distributed to offices of the Department of Agriculture across the region to facilitate the Department’s work. She said government had also allocated 150 dams to districts in the region under the 1-Village 1-Dam initiative and that, while some had been completed and were in use, a few others will commence in the coming months as contractors were moving to site. Furthermore, the flagship “Planting for Food and Jobs Programme” had a target of 500,000 farmers in 2018 but ended up benefiting an actual of 65,837 farmers, an indication that many more had bought into the ideals of the programme. During the period, a total of 578,450 bags of NKP and UREA fertilizer were distributed to farmers who cropped 276,378 hectares of land.

Hon. Abayage in her concluding remarks, commended the media in the region for giving maximum news coverage to her as Minister and to the region as a whole noting that, though service conditions in the media industry were not the best, “journalists here have reported on me extensively since I took office in November, 2018 and during my courtesy calls to the paramountcies”. She hoped to enjoy similar support from the media moving on, but cautioned some practitioners against rushing to publish news without fact-checking with their sources and other authorities.

Upper East Regional Chairman of the Ghana Journalist Association, Mr. Eric Amoh who earlier set the tone for the engagement at the Press Soiree noted that, the unending stalemate in the Bolgatanga chieftaincy issue was retarding development in the area while denigrating the people of the area. He therefore proposed to the Regional Security Council [REGSEC] and the Regional Minister to lobby government for the formation of a group of eminent chiefs to mediate in the matter as a similar effort by government culminated in the settlement of the marathon Dagbon traditional power struggle.

Mr. Amoh pledged that the media will continue to report fairly on activities in the region and especially, dwell on such issues that had the tendency of igniting development in the area.

Regional Heads of Department, staff of the Upper East RCC led by the Regional Coordinating Director - Alhaji Assibi Azonko, security chiefs and communication officers of the New Patriotic Party also participated in the Press Soiree.