Weija Irrigation Scheme, which was destroyed by the June 3 2015 torrential rains that caused severe floods and destroyed houses, farms and property running into billions of Ghana Cedis is undergoing rehabilitation.
The floods also caused severe damage to foodstuff, livestock and processing facilities, throughout the Greater Accra Region. Some of the canals and reservoirs of the Weija Irrigation Scheme were also damaged affecting farming activities.
The Weija Irrigation Scheme supplies water to farmers in the Greater Accra Region to produce vegetables and crops to feed Accra and parts of the Central Region.
Officials of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Ghana Irrigation Development Authority, (GIDA), who paid a visit to the site, saw that the more than 7.4km stretch of canal embankment to the storage reservoir had been cleared whilst more than half of the canal covered was being distilled with heavy earth moving machines and excavators.
The Weija Irrigation Scheme Rehabilitation under the project: “Emergency Assistance to Restore Productive Capacities of Flood Affected Agriculture Households,” in the Greater Accra Region was funded by the FAO at the cost of $500,000 as well as technical assistance.
The FAO support was in response to a request by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture
The beneficiary farmers, belonging to the Weija Water Users Association, have also been engaged to use shovels to remove remaining silt.
Similar works are ongoing at the Ashaiman and Dahwenya Irrigation Scheme.
In an interaction with the farmers, Mr Bukar Tijani, the FAO Representation for Africa expressed FAO’s commitment in building the resilience of farmers against disasters and climate change.
He urged them to protect the project as they could benefit millions of cedis from the project.
Mr Timothy Quaye-Huago, the Secretary of the Weija Users Water Association commended the FAO for their enormous support and called for the upgrade of the water pump to be able to supply enough water to their farms to meet their demands.
Mr Quaye-Huago added that the Association had petitioned Parliament on electricity tariffs faced by the farmers.
In a response, Dr Benjamin Vas Nyamadi, the Chief Executive Officer of GIDA said Parliament had directed his organisation to meet the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission to find solutions to the issue.
Dr Nyamadi urged the farmers to protect the lands from encroachment.
He said a meeting would be held on December 24, among the farmers, GIDA and residents to agree on where vehicles should pass in order not to damage the irrigation pipelines.
Source: GNA
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