Pwalugu Dam increases Ghana’s renewable energy

Pwalugu multi-Purpose Dam which  President H. E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo initiated in November 2019 is expected to increase Ghana’s renewable energy capacity from 2% to 10% by 2030 to meet the United Nations Framework for Climate Change (UNFCC) because of the hydro power component of the Dam.

The dam seeks to benefit Ghanaians in many aspects such as electricity, fisheries, irrigation and control of flood.

Although this project fulfills Government’s policy of providing electricity to the people of northern Ghana, it also aims at achieving one of the key objectives of VRA as taking lead role in climate change to ensure developments are undertaken sustainably.

The current project activities started in 2013 when VRA secured assistance from the Agence Francaise de Development of France financially and technical support from the World Bank.

This Dam is going to be of many benefits to the people of Northern Ghana and Ghana as a whole.

The project area is located on the White Volta River in Ghana, about 16km east of the Pwalugu bridge on the Tamale-Bolgatanga road.

Some of the benefits Ghana stands to gain may include, irrigation,fisheries, power generation and flood control.

The scheme will boost economic activity in the Upper East and North East regions as the 20,000 hectare scheme is the largest in the country.

This will improve productivity in farming and also attract large-scale commercial farmers.

The project has the potential to increase annual rice production in the country by up 117,000 tons and maize up to 49,000 tons. This will reduce imports from foreign states and stabilize prices of these commodities on the local market.

The project will serve as one of the backbones of the one district one factory, as well as the planting for food and job initiatives championed by H.E Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo Addo’s administration.

The project also have a solar component. The solar energy will compliment the hydro energy to enhance reliability if supply.

The Government’s target is to increase electricity access to 90% in the Northern region of Ghana from 60% in the Upper East Region.

VRA is also preparing Resettlement Action plan  in accordance with established international standards to make sure persons that are adversely affected by the project are compensated duly.

The contract has been awarded to power construction Corporation of China(POWERCHINA)

The project is funded by the Government of Ghana with the Volta River Authority(VRA) as implementing and supervision agency. Construction of the dam, as estimated, will take three and a half years to be completed.