The formal groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a multipurpose dam at Pwalugu in the Upper East region will take place in November, Government officials have announced.

This came to light during a meeting chaired by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and some key stakeholders, including officials of the Ministry of Finance, Volta River Authority and the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund on Monday.

The construction of the dam has become imperative due to the annual floods and deaths that occur in the area whenever the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso is opened.

In 2018, at least 7,488.94 hectares of farms were destroyed by the floods whilst livestock were carried away.

Sensitisation and evacuation plans had already began in the Pwalugu flood area, following plans by the Burkinabe authorities to open the dam in a few days’ time.

When completed, the multipurpose Pwalugu dam will have an elevation of 165 metres near the Pwalugu Bridge on the White Volta River and with a maximum reservoir area of 350kilometre square.

The project will also have a powerhouse consisting of two turbines with 60MW of installed capacity and 16.5MW of firm continuous capacity as well as, a 15KM overhead line for export of power to an existing transmission line.

The project comes with it, a 25,000-hectare irrigation scheme, which will boost rice production up to 117,000 tonnes per year and maize by up to 49,000 tonnes.

Other crops like tomatoes, sugarcane, sweet potato, sweet pepper and onions will also witness increased in production.

The dam will also serve as a source of water supply to communities in the catchment area.

Aside the thousands of jobs that will be created, the project will also have a hydro energy component to boost power supply in the area.

Upon completion, the dam will reduce the cost of power distribution to the northern parts of Ghana to support government's industrialisation, agriculture and value chain activities to accelerate socio-economic development.