Work has begun on a damaged bridge on the Bolga to Bawku road in the Upper East Region days after Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia pledged to get it fixed.

The Kubore Bridge was destroyed by floodwaters following torrential rains and the spillage of 28 million gallons of water from the Bagre Dam from neighbouring Burkina Faso.

The Vice President pledged to restore the situation when he visited the place recently to donate items and sympathise with persons displaced by the Bagre Dam spillage.

The collapse of the bridge has brought vehicular traffic to a halt as drivers have been unable to cross.

Residents have been compelled to use canoes and other means to cross.

Queiroz Galvão, the Brazilian Construction Company that is already working the Bolga-Bawku road, is currently at the site working on the road.

Addressing the press during an assessment visit to the Kubore Zebila-Bawku road, which has seen parts washed away by the heavy flood, Dr Bawumia said the flood has been devastating communities for years, stressing the need for a permanent solution.

“At the end of the day, this is a problem that we have kept experiencing year after year and the question I am sure is in the minds of every Ghanaian is what are we doing about it?,” Dr Bawumia said.

He added: “We have understood that to deal with this problem fundamentally, we have to have a flood control in the context of the Pwalugu Dam.

“That is the most important antidote to all of these. That is why we have moved to secure the Pwalugu Dam project, and this project is the biggest dam project we have in the northern region.

“It is the single biggest investment in northern Ghana since independence; it is about 1 billion dollars and the contractors are on site.”

The Vice President said before the floods, the contractors had already commenced work by clearing the site up to the river.

He added that the contractors would have to wait for the waters to subside and then divert it for work to continue.

On the washing away of portions of the Kubore road which links Bolga and Bawku, the Vice President said the Ghana Highway Authority is waiting for the water to subside before contractors move on-site to fix the bridge and reconnect the road.