By Benjamin Makafui Attipoe, Weta
Rice farmers under the Weta Irrigation Scheme (WIS), as well as the traditional authorities in the Ketu North Municipality of the Volta Region, have appealed to the government to urgently rehabilitate what they described as a collapsed Weta Irrigation Scheme. Speaking at a press conference at Weta, spokesperson for the farmers, Gideon Kokoroko, noted that the more than 40-year-old scheme has become a white elephant.
The Weta Irrigation Scheme (WIS), formerly known as the Afife Irrigation Project (AIP), was constructed with support from the Chinese government between 1979 and 1982. It was officially commissioned for rice cultivation in 1983. For more than four decades, the scheme has contributed significantly to rice and vegetable production in the Volta region in particular and the country as a whole. Available data on the project indicates that the scheme, which is the second largest irrigation scheme in the country, potentially produces more than 10,000 metric tons of rice annually from just 880 hectares of land to feed the Ghanaian economy.
Despite its immense contribution to national food security, the Scheme has never undergone any major rehabilitation since it became operational. The project is in its fifth decade of continuous use, although experts recommended that it should have been rehabilitated more than 20 years ago. Years of complete neglect have left the scheme in a state of disarray or in a very sad and deplorable state.
In 2023, the rice farmers who numbered about 2,500 welcomed an announcement from officials of the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) that the scheme had been earmarked for rehabilitation under a $150 million West Africa Food System Resilience Programme (WAFSRP) supported by the World Bank, aimed at improving rice and vegetable production in the area. Three years down the line, the farmers are still wondering what has become of the intended support and fund for the purpose.
A few weeks ago, the woes of the farmers became worsened resulting from the recent torrential rains that flooded and destroyed all the 1,800 hectares of cultivated rice, estimated at almost Ghc60 million.The floods have not only wiped out the entire investments of the farmers but also completely dashed the hopes and aspirations of the thousands of the farmers and their dependents or families.
Speaking at the press conference, the spokesperson for the farmers, Mr. Gideon Kokoroko, noted that every single major component of the irrigation infrastructure has collapsed. According to him, the main protective dyke has collapsed,
exposing the entire irrigation scheme to continuous flooding and making farming an extremely risky venture. ‘The main laterals, sub-laterals, feeding ditches, check gates, main road to the farm as well as the main access road to the project, have all collapsed’, Mr. Kokoroko added. He described the situation as a collapsed state of a collapsed WIS.
The farmers have appealed to the President to urgently intervene to avert the looming collapse of the scheme. In this regard, the spokesperson called on government to immediately undertake a comprehensive rehabilitation of the entire scheme and also provide emergency relief and financial support to farmers who have lost their crops and investments due to the recent floods. He also called for the development of a medium to long-term maintenance programme to ensure that the irrigation infrastructure remains functional for future generations.
Mr. Kokoroko used the occasion to appeal to the World Bank Representative in Ghana not only to take interest in the matter, but also ensure that its funds allocated for the rehabilitation works are released and accordingly used for the intended purpose to achieve the needed results. ‘In fact, if the government allows this important irrigation scheme in Ghana to collapse or cease to cultivate rice and vegetables, the people of Ketu North or by extension the Volta region will not forgive the state of Ghana and her leaders’, the spokesperson concluded.
Similar calls also came from well-meaning individuals of the area. The Dufia of Atiteti and a representative of the Weta Traditional Council (WTC) on the scheme or project, Torgbui Adjei III was not happy about the state of the collapsed infrastructure of the scheme. According to him, the chiefs willingly gave out their land for the project, adding that this is not the state they want their lands today. A member of the allocation committee, leader and farmer on the scheme, Mr. Gabriel Nusenu as well as two other farmers, Mr. Godwin Sogbey and Ms. Rebecca Nukporfe, also added their voice to the calls for the complete rehabilitation of the project.
The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for the area, Rev. Martin Korbla Amenaki, described the state of the scheme as truly worrying, adding that the scheme’s importance in rice cultivation and to contributing to the food basket of the region cannot be over-emphasized. Rev. Amenaki appealed to the government to urgently intervene to save the project from collapsing.
