Demarcation of land for Volta project takes off soon

Atimpoku (Eastern Region), March '99 --

Demarcation of lands acquired for the Volta Lake Guage Protection Project will start before the end of March this year. Mr Emmanuel Dwamena-Bekoe, Asuogyaman District Chief Executive, told assemblymen at Atimpoku on Wednesday that adequate "compensation will be paid to the owners of the 98 square kilometres of land earmarked for the project". He expressed the hope that the payments would help prevent frequent confrontations between farmers in communities along the Volta Lake and the District Forestry officials and appealed to the chiefs and the affected landlords to co-operate to ensure the success of the project. He said 90 per cent of revenue in 1998 were derived from the common fund and grants, attributing it to the level of economic and commercial activities in the district outside Akosombo. Mr Dwamena-Bekoe said this year, the assembly has budgetted for a total revenue of about 1.7 billion cedis out which total government grants is expected to be about 1.5 billion cedis. He said 29.84 per cent of the amount woud be used to finance school projects in the district while 5.7 per cent of the amount will support health related projects. Mr Dwamena-Bekoe reported improvement in the relationship between the assembly and the Volta River Authority (VRA). The assembly,he said, was awaiting the reaction of VRA to a request for a 500 million cedis as development grant. In a welcoming address, Mr Moses Kenneth Osei-Tutu, the Presiding Member, called on the assembly members to establish good working relationships with unit committees to ensure the smooth implementation of development projects.