The World Food Programme has assisted six communities in the Sissala East District of the Upper West Region to rehabilitate small dams and dug-outs to help improve livelihoods, food security and good nutrition among the people.

Constructed under the WFP’s Asset Creation Programme, more than 2,000 vulnerable people in four of these communities, namely; Nabugbelle, Taffiase, Kassanpouri and Jijen also received various sums of money totaling more than one million Ghana cedis for helping to construct these important community assets.

At Nabugbelle, 535 members of the community received between GHC400 to GHC674 for helping to construct the dug-outs.

Ms. Mutinta Chimuka, the Country Director of WFP, explained that the asset creation projects were aimed at helping people build community assets to improve livelihoods, food security and nutrition.

The nine-month construction period started during the off-farming season to provide work for the youth in their communities and to curb migration to urban cities, she said.

Ms. Chimuka explained that the development of Agriculture was the future of Ghana, saying, it was for this reason that WFP partnered District Assemblies and the private sector to ensure the success of the asset creation programme.

She said there was a link between agriculture and good nutrition, and expressed the hope that the dams would impact on people’s nutritious status through the cultivation of fresh green leafy vegetables.

Ms. Chimuka said the way forward was to construct more and larger dams, which could be used for irrigation and build fish ponds to provide for people’s protein needs.

She emphasised the importance of maintaining all the small dams and dug-outs so that they did not deteriorate and negate all the investment and work done so far.

“The communities themselves requested for these dams, therefore, they need to take ownership and work with their District Assemblies to maintain them,” she said.

Mr. Johnson Sabborh, the Sissala East District Chief Executive (DCE), said the construction of the six dams would help curb rural-urban migration, which was a serious challenge in the District.

He lauded the WFP for regularly monitoring its interventions in the District and cautioned community members to ensure that the dams did not break down.

At Challu where one of the dams had already been completed earlier in the year, the Chairman of the Challu Dam Rehabilitation Project, Alidu Anvia, pleaded for additional expansion of the dam as it was the only water body serving the entire community.

Community members in Bugubelle also thanked the WFP for helping to construct a new dug-out, which they said had helped to reduce loss of cattle during the dry season because of the non-availability of water.

Mariama Seidu from Nabugbelle expressed excitement to receive GHC674 for her work on the new dam and expressed the hope that the dam would enable them to irrigate vegetable gardens during the dry season to boost household incomes.

She said she would use the cash to pay for her daughters’ school fees and also meet some pressing family needs.

The Asset Creation Programmes are being implemented with funding from the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD).