Kaleo, (UW/R), June 5, GNA – Mr Fusca Ninkpeng, the Assembly Member for the Kaleo East Electoral Area in the Nadowli-Kaleo District, has appealed to the District Assembly to aid the community in dredging the Kaleo dam to improve irrigation farming in the area.
He said the dam had served as a source of water for dry season farming for several years but had not been dredged for decades, thereby, posing a serious risk to the livelihood of the people.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Kaleo, Mr Ninkpeng observed that the dam was at the verge of drying up and called for urgent steps to desilt it.
“This dam is benefiting the people a lot. For years now, they have been farming vegetables here in the dry season, but it is no more the Kaleo dam that we use to know, it is gradually drying up.
“The dam is very deep, but as we speak, I can walk from end to end and the water will not even reach my knee level”, the Assembly Member explained.
He also expressed fear that livestock keeping in the area will adversely be affected if the dam is not dredged, as the animals also depended on it for water.
He said several appeals to the District Assembly to dredge it had not yielded any positive result saying, “some people also fish in the dam so if we allow it to dry up, the livelihood of so many people will be affected”.
He, however, blamed the current state of the dam on the activities of the community members who damp refuse at there and entreated them to change their attitude.
“It is our own attitude that is causing the dam to fill up, the waste materials from the community is what is filling the dam.
“Some of us have turned the dam site into a refuse dump and if we don’t stop it, we are the ones to suffer it”, Mr Ninkpeng said.
Source: Ghana News Agency