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Ashaiman irrigation scheme
under threat by trespassers
Ashaiman, Jan 12, Ghanadot/GNA-- The Ashaiman Irrigation
Farmers Co-operative Society, has appealed to government and
other stakeholders in the agricultural sector to eject
trespassers operating along the irrigation dam at Ashaiman.
The dam, being operated under the Ashaiman Irrigation
Scheme, could dry up because the trespassers had developed
its banks into human settlements.
The Scheme has a potential area of 155 hectares of which 97
hectares have been developed into rice and vegetable farms.
Mr Ben Kanati, Secretary of the Society, who made the
request at a press conference at Ashaiman on Friday, said
apart from building houses, schools and Churches along the
banks of the dam, trespassers also discharge waste water
into it.
He said " Whereas roads leading to the dam have been turned
into a refuse dump and a place for defecation, the wire
fencing on the boundaries provided by the Japan
International Co-operation Agency have also been removed."
Mr Kanati said members of a task force, formed by the
farmers to guide the area were assaulted on several
occasions by trespassers.
He said the farmers numbering over 100 pay returns to the
Ashaiman Irrigation Centre bi-annually for the use of the
dam and that the activities of the trespassers was a worry
to the users of the facility.
Mr Kanati said the Scheme had a research centre which served
22 projects of the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority.
He said the milling machine at the Scheme milled over 2400
tones of paddy rice from Afife, Okyreko and the Affram
plains every year.
Mr. Kanati said "farmers operating under the scheme produce
rice seeds for the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to be
distributed to farmers country wide making the dam
beneficial to the whole country."
Mr Simon Apio, Deputy Director of the Ashaiman Irrigation
Centre, responding to the issues raised by the farmers after
the press conference confirmed the activities of the
trespassers.
He said the Centre sought the assistance of the Tema
Development Corporation and the police to arrest trespassers
but that had not deterred the offenders.
GNA
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