Makango (Northern Region) 17 May ?99

The Volta River Authority (VRA) resettlement trust board has released 500,000 dollars for the provision of potable water to all the 52 communities who were affected by the construction of the Akosombo Hydro Electricity Dam.

Feasibility studies have already been completed to determine the water systems that would be suitable for the communities scattered along tributaries of the Volta Lake.

Alhaji Hamid Baba Braimah, member of the board and MP for Salaga, announced this at Makango, a fishing and farming community in the East Gonja district.

He was commissioning an 80 million-cedi clinic, which he initiated three years ago with his share of the MP's common fund. The clinic, which has two staff bungalows furnished by FAME, will serve about 15 communities in the area.

The district assembly, in collaboration with the VRA Trust Board and the Fellowship of Associates of Medical Evangelism (FAME), a medical non-governmental organisation, completed the project.

The VRA Trust Board, in conjunction with the Ministry of Mines and Energy, is contracting a loan facility from the Chinese government to extend electricity to the 52 communities at an initial cost of 46 million dollars, he said.

Evangelist Enoch Nyador, executive director of FAME, said the organisation had provided another clinic at Ekumdi, also in the East Gonja district.

He called on the people to live in peace and unity to attract more projects to the district.

Mr. Jerry Dramah Jackson, District Chief Executive, assured investors that peace had returned to the district after the 1994 ethnic conflict, adding, feel to come and invest in the area.