VRA Trust Fund spends over GH¢101,701 on projects in E/R
The Volta River Authority (VRA) Resettlement Trust Fund has initiated 30 projects in its 52 resettlement sites in the country.
It has spent over GH¢101,701 on projects at the resettlement communities in the Eastern Region alone since 2009.
Mr Andrew Tonto Barfour, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the VRA Resettlement Trust Fund, disclosed this at the inauguration of a GH¢60,163 nurses quarters and the renovation of the VRA Resettlement Clinic at Amankwakrom in the Afram Plains at the weekend.
He said since the establishment of the VRA Resettlement Trust Fund in 1996, it had undertaken many projects in all the 52 resettlement communities across the country.
Mr Barfour mentioned the projects to include 39 kindergartens, 52 primary school blocks, 43 Junior High School blocks, three teacher’s quarters, 10 clinics, two nurses’ quarters, 82 boreholes 15 small town water systems, 66 10-seater KVIPs and eight community centres.
He said the structures built by the VRA and the Trust Fund in all the communities had been rehabilitated with the aim of helping to improve the living conditions of the inhabitants of the communities concerned.
Mr Barfour explained that the biggest challenge facing the fund was inadequate finance because the source of money for the fund was only $500,000 contribution to the fund annually by the VRA.
He explained that the fund was not responsible for the payment of compensation to the landlords who offered their lands for the creation of the settlement.
Mr Barfour said by a recent Court ruling, the Government was responsible for the settlement of all compensation and therefore advised traditional authorities who had those issues to take it up with the Lands Commission.
The Member of Parliament for Afram Plains North, Mr Emmanuel Aboagye Didieye, promised to support the health centre with malaria drugs and appealed to the people to visit the clinic when sick before the disease got out of hand.
He appealed for the provision of DSTV facility at the nurses’ quarters to enable nurses posted to work at the clinic to enjoy their stay at the place.
In a speech read on his behalf, the Kwahu North District Chief Executive, Mr Ibrahim Issaka, appealed to the chiefs and people in the community to see the project as their own and take good care of it so that it would benefit the whole District.
He appealed to the Trust Fund to consider the provision of potable water drawn from the Volta Lake to the clinic because no matter the depth to which a borehole was sunk in the area, it dried up during the long dry season.
The District Director of Health Services, Mr Robert Kwaku Ababio, in a speech read on his behalf, called for the provision of a laboratory and wards in the near future to help upgrade the facility to support the District Hospital at DonkorKrom.
He explained that having more well equipped hospitals, clinics and adequate staff was one of the major ways of bringing quality health care to the doorsteps of the people in the District.
The Chairman of the VRA Resettlement Town Development Committee, Mr Godwin Sodze, called for the rehabilitation of their quarters, re-gravelling of the streets leading to the area and the provision of street lights.
The Chairman of the function, Barimah Kuntu Sakyi IV, Nkamihene of Kwahu Traditional Area, observed that some traditional authorities who offered their lands for the construction of the resettlement communities had fully received their compensation while others had not yet received anything.
He therefore appealed to the Trust Fund to take that situation into consideration in the provision of amenities.
Source: GNA