$1 million per constituency initiative: Wa, Lawra benefit from 43 projects
The first phase of implementation of the government’s $1 million per constituency initiative in the Upper West Region has taken off.
The Wa Municipality will benefit from 35 projects whilst Lawra will have eight, including education, health and other social amenities, aimed at improving the quality of life of the people.
Separate sodcutting ceremonies were held at Busa, near Wa and Lawra, last Friday for the first phase.
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In all, 225 projects are to be undertaken across the Upper West Region under the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP) and will be executed by the Northern Development Authority (NDA).
Projects
Some of the projects in the Wa Municipality include the refurbishment and expansion work at the maternity ward of the Busa Health Centre which will be transformed into a centre for a vast catchment area, including patients from East District.
At Lawra most of the projects to be undertaken are mainly at the Municipal Hospital which was built over 90 years ago.
The hospital will be expanded with a wall and transformed with a 15-bed capacity Emergency Ward, a Neo - natal Intensive Care Unit, a move to bring specialised services which are not provided by the small health care facilities and has resulted in the high spate of maternal and neo-natal deaths in the area.
The others include the construction of a three -unit lecture hall for the nursing school and two youth centres at Babile and Bagre.
Hitherto, the Lawra hospital which also caters for a number of patients from Burkina Faso had neither a wall nor emergency ward. The ceremonies were done strictly under the President's directive of organising meetings not exceeding 25 people, and as such, participants comprised few traditional rulers, assembly members and officials.
Sod-cutting
Cutting the sod for the start of the projects, the Deputy Chief Executive of NDA, Mr Stephen Yir-eru Engmen, said all the IPEPs were demand driven, indicating that the projects were chosen by the people and not imposed on them by the government.
Mr Engmen said the IPEP projects which had a duration of three months to six months would be executed in all the five regions across the northern sector, adding that in all, the five northern regions were to benefit from a total of 560 projects.
He said the projects were very dear to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who was determined to enhance their livelihoods and uplift their lifestyle. He hoped that the contractors for the various projects would execute the jobs well to bring relief to the people.
The Nurse in charge of the Busa Health Centre, Ms Yunusah Fuseini, expressed her gratitude to the government for the project which she said would go a long way to improve the quality of health service delivery in the area.
She appealed for street lights on the premises of the centre which was constructed in 1996 and other social amenities to improve on the standard of living in the area.
