Accra Mail (Accra)
17 November 2008
President Kufuor last Friday performed the ceremony to mark the official commencement of construction works on a 16.5 million-dollar ultra-modern fishing harbour and landing site at James Town in Accra.
The project comes with an administration block, cold-store and refrigeration facilities, fuel depot, power station, net storage shed, fish market and an area for mending nets.
"Messrs DHV", a Dutch engineering consortium, is undertaking the job. It is the first of 20 fishing infrastructure development projects government is rolling out along the country's coastline, stretching from the Western through Central, Greater Accra to the Volta Region at a total cost 148 million dollars.
They are made up two fishing harbours, 12 landing sites and six cold-store and refrigeration facilities.
A seven-million-euro grant under the Second Spanish Protocol Agreement with Ghana has been secured to fund some of the projects.
President Kufuor announced that a National Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy document had been developed to regulate activities of that sub-sector as part of the push towards the sector's modernization
The document would serve as blueprint for the management of fisheries resources and development of aquaculture in the country. Added to these was the establishment of Life Guard Detachments at all the fishing harbours under the auspices of the Ghana Navy.
President Kufuor said to help end the problem of poaching by foreign deep-sea fishing trawlers, government is equipping the Navy with more patrol boats to enable them to effectively police the nation's territorial waters and protect its fishing stocks.
Mrs Gladys Asamah announced that government had started the process of repossessing the Tema Boatyard, divested in 1996 at a cost of GH¢300, as a result of the inability of the company to refurbish boats and canoes which were putting the lives of fishermen in danger.
More than 40 boats and canoes, she said, had been lost over the past two years due to the non-performance of the company.
Mr Jan Oomen, Director of International Projects of DHV, said the modern facilities would ensure much cleaner and more hygienic fish handling and storage operations in compliance with mainstream requirements of the European Union.
Nii Abio Twerequandah, Chief Fisherman of Greater Accra, recognized the marked growth and development of the fishing industry through the establishment by government of a separate Ministry for Fisheries.
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