Minister gatecrashes VRA and wind energy stakeholders meeting at Sege

The Minister for Land and Natural Resources, Hon. Nii Osa Mills yesterday gatecrashed a stakeholders meeting at the Ada West District Assembly hall, Sege organised by the Volta River Authority (VRA) under the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment for government, amid denying awareness of the event which falls under government and his ministry in particular.

The meeting which was being held by (VRA) and opinion leaders from some selected communities, was

under the headline ‘Stakeholder engagement session for the proposed 75 MW Wind Energy Facilities in the Greater Accra Region.’

But approaching the end of the session, the minister who coincidentally was in the district to engage some women who went on protest demonstration barely two weeks ago about the state of the Songor lagoon, to try and find a lasting peace to the issue, unceremoniously walked into the meeting at the District Assembly which happened to be the venue for his own meeting.

The engagement was supposed to be a stakeholder meeting on a proposed wind energy project for some selected communities from the Ada West District. The project if successfully implemented will add about 75 megawatts of power to the national grid. Wokumagbe, Goi and Omankope are the communities targeted to benefit from the project which is being undertaken by VRA and Selgen company as the consultants. Stakeholders are drawn from the project communities and experts from South Africa.

This project, according to the organisers, is part of the Government of Ghana’s energy economy initiative which suggests that 10% of Ghana’s electricity needs should come from renewable power generation. Forty five wind turbines will be mounted to produce 75 megawatts power. Each turbine, 95 meter high, will produce 1.7 megawats power each.

But after being briefed about the agenda, openly expressed his disapproval with the programmme insisting the project falls under his ministry but he doesn’t know anything about it. He engaged the leader of the organisers in a heated argument, pointing out that such projects are a threat to migratory birds hence the need for caution when implementing it.

Mary Akuteye, the chairperson of Ada Songor Salt Women Association (Yikatseme) who happened to be at the same venue to for dialogue with the minister, also expressed concern about the project and asked whether the wind energy project will not affect the salt business since the lagoon need wind for crystallization and this actually prompted the minister’s reaction.

The minister asked the project to be kept on hold until formalities are respected and proper measures are put in place.

The meeting was officially opened and chaired by Hon. Teye Agat Matey, DCE for the Sege District Assembly.

Meanwhile , the other meeting between a high government delegation led of course by Hon. Osa Mills and other top officials including Ade Coker and the Ada Songor Salt Women Association (Yikatseme) also came off successfully. This was to a direct response to a petition presented by the association and received on behalf of the president by the District assembly, expressing their frustrations about the state of the songor lagoon and more importantly the importation of foreign salt to the neglect of the local one.

The minister, on behalf of government expressed sympathy for the association and the entire Ada community for this unbearable situation. He assured them that have taken keen interest in the development and will not rest until a lasting solution is found.

Ade Coker, who also spoke at the meeting said government will insist that the importation of foreign salt is stopped as soon as possible to help promote the local one.

Credit: Noah Dameh