The Dutch government has provided five million euros to support the development of the Mole National Park in the West Gonja District.

Mr. Daniel Kwamena Ewur, Assistant Wildlife Officer of the Park, said this when the Northern Regional Minister, Mr Ernest Debrah, visited as part of a three-day tour of the district.

Mr Ewur said 1.9 million euros out of the amount would be used on the development of roads and the provision of 110 housing units for the staff of the park while the rest of the money would be spent on civil works and the promotion of tourism, community participatory management, the strengthening of the administration and the provision of means of transport.

He appealed to the government to connect the Park to the national electricity grid and also to tar the road from Fufulso to the park to promote tourism.

Mr Ewur said lack of electricity and the deplorable condition of the road militate against the promotion of tourism in the area.

He deplored the situation where poachers sometimes kill members of staff and urged the government to give them special incentive packages to minimize poaching.

Mr Debrah commended the staff for their dedication to work and assured them that the government would do everything possible to put the park to optimum use to benefit the country.

He said as much as he sympathised with them it had also come to his notice that some of the staff had been condoning with hunters to poach in the Park and warned such officers to stop the practice.

Mr Debrah urged authorities of the Park to provide financial assistance to farmers whose lands have been taken for the extension of the facility.

He said the government was providing the Mole community with four boreholes next year to ease the acute water shortage in the area.