Government to terminate Pwalugu Dam contract
The Minister for Food and Agriculture, Eric Opoku, has announced the government’s intention to terminate the contract for the construction of the Pwalugu Dam.
Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, January 29, the minister said the government would cancel the contract immediately and award it to a different company.
“What we will do is terminate that contract immediately. We’ll terminate the Pwalugu contract, look for a contractor, look for funding, and then immediately ensure execution of the contract,” he said.
Anticipating a judgement debt arising from cancelling this contract, he said, “Anyway, before we terminate, we’ll refer it to the Attorney General’s department for his advice. But we are prepared to make sure that the Pwalugu project is executed. And I can assure you that it is going to be John Mahama’s signature project in the North”.
The $993 million Pwalugu Dam, commissioned in 2019, was scheduled to be completed in 2024.
The project includes the construction of a roller-compacted concrete dam 168 metres above sea level near the Pwalugu Bridge on the White Volta River and a reservoir covering an area of 262 square kilometres.
Other components include a powerhouse consisting of two Kaplan turbines with 60 megawatts of installed capacity and a solar power plant of 50 megawatts.
An irrigation scheme consisting of a 20-metre high water weir and canal network covering about 25,000 hectares was also to be installed.
However, the dam site appears empty despite spending $12 million on it.