Wa, March 29, GNA - Alhaji Salia Issahaque, the Upper West Regional Ministers, has said the government had awarded 257 projects in the education, health, water and sanitation, roads and local government sectors between January 2009 and 2011. Some of the projects had been completed whilst many are at advanced stages of completion and would be accomplished soon, he said. Alhaji Issahaque was speaking at a meeting with members of the Upper West Regional House of Chiefs in Wa on Monday as part of President John Atta Mills' visit to the region.

He said at the district level, the district assemblies had also awarded 203 projects in various sectors and prominent among them were 60 schools under tree projects, many of which had been completed. He said 12 emergency school projects to take care of the extra year of the senior high school had been completed and a construction of a regional library was ongoing.

Construction of an Information and Communication Technology Centre (ICT) complex at Nusrat Jahan Training College, the provision of 14,834 free school uniforms for deprived areas and the expansion of the school feeding programme from 19 to 59 schools were among projects that benefited the education sector. Alhaji Issahaque said contracts had been awarded for the construction of a regional hospital and five polytechnics in the region.

Under the Block Farming programme, 10,000 acres were put under cultivation last year for maize, rice, sorghum and soya beans and more than 18,000 maxi bags of maize grain 3,302 rice grain and 1,980 maize seed was produced. Nine agricultural mechanisation centres had been established with 46 tractors while an additional 74 tractors had been sold to farmers at subsidised prices, Various types of fertilizers totaling 46,264 bags were distributed in 2010 at subsidised rate to farmers to boost food production in the region.

Alhaji Issahaque said the 30-kilometre Wa-Hain road would be tarred and a new steel bridge would be constructed to replace the one on the Domwini-Nandom road. Tarring of the Tumu-Sissili road would also start soon.

He said Funsi, the last district capital in the region, would be hooked to the national grid while 50 communities had been hooked to electricity between 2009 and 2010. Alhaji Issahaque said more than 300 communities would be connected to the national grid under the Rural Electrification Project.