Govt sets up committee to review songor salt project

August 28, 2008 Centre Spread

Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE Government has constituted a three-member committee to review the current salt-winning technology and project management system of the Ada Songor Salt Project.
The setting up of the committee was necessitated by agitations of workers of the Ada Songor Salt Project over the manner in which the project was being implemented by the five-member interim management committee overseeing it.
The Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines, Ms Esther Obeng Dappah, who inaugurated the committee yesterday, said the aim was “to ensure the efficient management of the exploitation of the salt resources in the project area”.
The Ada Songor Salt Project is a government enterprise to produce salt in the Ada Songor Lagoon area. The project has been managed by a five-member interim management committee since 2002.
Ghana possesses one of the largest proven renewable solar salt potential along the West African coast, and stretches a distance of about 500 kilometres of her coast line.
The committee is chaired by a representative of the Attorney General’s Department, with a chartered accountant, Mr Emmanuel Ofosu Offei, and a mining engineer, Mr James Adjei, both from the Minerals Commission, as the other members.
Ms Obeng Dappah said the committee was expected to review the performance of the interim management committee and the system of employing casual labour for salt harvesting and to identify the most cost-effective method for harvesting salt and review the salt marketing system being employed, with the view to identifying strengths and weaknesses.
They are also to review the project’s accounting system and identify any weaknesses.
It will also re-examine the project management system, including labour and management relations and make recommendations on the findings within two months.
Ms Obeng Dappah said the government’s main objective “is the optimum development of the salt industry to ensure improved foreign exchange earnings, employment generation and poverty alleviation”.
She indicated that the importance of the salt and allied chemical and petroleum industries to the economy could not be over-emphasised, much more when the nation had discovered oil.
She expressed the hope that the committee would live up to the task assigned to it, “so that upon the implementation of its recommendations, our efforts at maximising the contribution of this important salt industry to Ghana’s march to maximising the targets of the nation’s development goals would be achieved”.
Ms Obeng Dappah noted that the country had the potential of producing more than 2.0 million metric tonnes of salt per annum, but the current production was less than 0.5 million metric tonnes per annum.
It is estimated that the effective exploitation of salt would enable the country to supply the salt needs of the sub-region.
Specific areas that had been identified as salt production target zones are Weija and Dangme East and West districts in the Greater Accra Region, Keta and Ketu districts in the Volta Region, Gomoa, Awutu-Effutu, Mfantsiman and Komenda Edina Eguafo Abirem districts in the Central Region, and Ahanta West District in the Western Region.
Ms Obeng Dappah said government’s efforts at salt production were directed at addressing the difficulties confronting the salt industry, such as poor organisation and development of the industry due to disputes over land ownership and subsequent social upheavals, weak institutional support, inefficient production methods and poor environmental management of salt production.
Consequently, she said, the government had engaged a consultant to prepare a land use plan for the regularisation of land use within the Ada Songor Lagoon area, and indicated that the consultant had submitted a final report whose recommendations were being studied by the government.
Mr Adjei, who spoke on behalf of the other members, gave the assurance that the committee would investigate all issues involved in the matter and make the necessary recommendation for the government to take the appropriate action.