GPSNP: Beneficiary communities appeal for the inclusion of fish rearing component

Communities benefiting from the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project (GPSNP) are appealing to the government to introduce fish farming which would make use of small earth dams constructed under the project.

The Ghana Productive Safety Net project is a joint intervention being implemented by the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Production, with a UDS 100 million funding support from the World Bank.

The project aims at empowering poor rural women with financial resources and employment opportunities through labour-intensive public works and income-earning ventures to improve incomes for the poor.

Under the project’s Labour Intensive Public Works (LIPW) module, rural communities have been able to execute public works such as the construction of small earth dams, community plantations and feeder roads.

In all, 11 districts are benefiting from the project in the Upper East Region, with 4,351 beneficiaries receiving grants of about GHC4.5 million under the Productive Inclusion (PI) component. Another 9,278 beneficiaries have been reached for the public works component with an amount of GHC19.3 million spent on unskilled labour.

In the Builsa South District and North municipality for instance, where two small earth dams have been constructed at Zamsa and Kpikpaluk through the Labour Intensive public works, residents said fish farming would create an additional income source for the communities.

They have proposed the introduction of fish stock into the dams to be one of the income-generating ventures under the project as the likes of shea butter production, malt brewing, rice parboiling and other petty trades.

While they are delighted at the government’s effort to encourage dry season farming with the construction of the dams, residents are also appealing for the dams to be desilted and expanded to increase their water holding capacity.

Adem Thomas, the facilitator of the project in Zamsa, said the construction of the dam has been beneficial to the community. He said residents are now able to access water for their livestock, construction purposes and farming.

“The dam construction project is good for us, especially domestically. Now our animals get water to drink and we also use it for small gardens and then for the building of houses. Now if we want water, we don’t go any place, we just come to our dam and get it,” Adem said.

Adem said the Zamsa -Tankasa- Gbedema road which is a major access path to several communities was in bad shape putting residents through a lot of difficulties. He, therefore, appealed to the government to engage residents of the Zamsa, particularly the women through the Labour Intensive Public Works to reconstruct the road.

Adoption

Responding to the appeal, the local government, decentralisation and rural development deputy minister, Augustine Collins Ntim, during a working visit to assess the success of the intervention initiated in 2020, said his ministry was considering adopting fishing farming into the project.

He said the ministry was going to stock all 80 dams constructed under the project with fish to broaden the benefits associated with the project.

Ntim said the dams were also going to receive massive expansion to increase water storage in the dams for the benefits of crop and fish farming.

“It would be prudent if we can link it [fish farming] with the fishing development. It is one of the demands of the communities and I think that it is in sync with the ministry’s plans and projects. So, we are going to adopt it. All the dams that we have built so far close to about 80, there is going to be a conscious effort to stock all the dams.”

“I saw some of the dams myself and that is the essence of my visit so that I can see for myself what needed to be done and what needed to be improved. And it is correct that we need to deepen and desilt some of the dams so that they can contain many volumes of water.”

Senyalah Castro

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