Funsi, (UWR), June 8, GNA-The people of Wa East District of the Upper West Region, have appealed to government and communication companies to make their services available to link the area to the rest of the world.

They said the district was a State within Ghana because it has not been connected to the national electricity grid and no communication company had extended its services to the area. The appeal was made at the people's assembly at Funsi, the capital town of the distinct by participants at the forum. Participants said government workers did not accept transfer to the district while those who were working there spent much of their time in Wa to carry out official duties due to the lack of electricity to power office equipment such as computers. They said the small town water project for Funsi was still on the drawing board due to the lack of electricity to the area and a theatre established for operations of patients at the District Hospital had also been abandoned.

Participants called on the government to build permanent bridges on Kulun and Ambaalara Rivers to facilitate economic activities in the Funsi and West Mamprusi in the Northern Region. Some of the participants commended government for rehabilitating the Yala/ Kulun portion of the road and Wahabu/Funsi road as well as providing feeder roads and potable water for people. The participants appealed to government to make farm inputs such fertilizers and tractors available and at affordable prices to farmers to enable them to increase food production.

At Tumu in the Sissala West District, some farmers appealed to government to introduce the "cloud feeding technology" which was being practiced in Burkina Faso to address the perennial deficiency in rain fall in the Northern part of the country to boost food production. Participants said the construction of dams for irrigation was likely to fail because of erratic rainfall pattern as a result of change in climate and other environmental conditions. The President of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, Mr Mohammed Nasiru appealed to government to launch the Presidential Special Initiative on Cotton and Guinea Fowl in the Northern part of the country.

He also urged the authorities to give equal attention to sheanut production as was being done for cocoa industry. At Gwollu in Sissala West, the people asked for good drinking water, dams for irrigation, schools, electricity and roads to help improve their living conditions. The Upper West Regional Minister, Mr. George Hikah Benson, Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr. Clement Eledi, the Minister of State in charge of transportation, Mr. Godfred Bayon Tangu and the Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, Madam Asibi Winifred Bawa Dy-Yakah attended the fora at Sissala and Wa East districts. They answered questions from participants and explained government policies and programmes to them. 8 June 08