BPA Resettlement Programme

The Bui Hydroelectric Project involved the resettlement of eight (8) communities with a total population of 1,216 people who were going to be affected by the construction of the dam and the dam’s reservoir, which was expected to cover an area of 444km² at its full supply level.

The area of permanent inundation included six communities which needed to be resettled. Although another community, Dokokyina, would not be inundated, it needed to be relocated because the community was going to be surrounded on three sides by the reservoir (south, east and west), and large parts of their land, which was used for cultivation, grazing, hunting and collection of forest products, was also going to be submerged. The BPA Resettlement Programme also intended to relocate the Bui Camp, the dilapidated residence of the Game and Wildlife Officers assigned to protect the Bui National park.

BPA, recognizing that displacement of people can pose social challenges that needed to be understood for development of durable solution, pursued an Environmental and Social Impact Mitigation Measures stipulated in a Resettlement Planning Framework (January 2007) for the Bui Hydroelectric Project. This Plan outlined the processes and principles for resettlement to achieve the objectives of improving the living conditions and creating economic opportunities for the Project Affected People. Several forms of assistance were offered to reduce the stress usually associated with such “movement”.

Additionally, BPA collaborated with the Department of Human Resettlement of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and other development stakeholders to promote livelihood enhancements for the re-settlers.

The main elements of the Resettlement & Community Support Plan therefore include:

1. New resettlement townships with following Communal Facilities;

• Community Centre,
• Nursery, Place of worship, Boreholes, KVIPs
• Houses: (Room for Room+kitchen+bath+living room)

2. Compensation for loss of economic trees at LVB rates
3. Grants (2007):

• Resettlement Grant of GH¢100 for relocation: (This Grant was the allowance given to EACH member of the affected communities to mitigate the incidental costs and inconvenience of relocation. It was a one-off payment sum of GH¢100 for EACH member of the community including all age groups – babies to aged people).
• Farm Grant of GH¢50 to till new farm: (This Grant was an allowance paid to EACH household to aid in preparing new farms lands acquired for them by BPA as part of their resettlement. This amount went into ensuring that the cost of preparing the farm lands provided is not borne by the resettled farmer. BPA acquired two acres of land for each household resettled under Part A and made available GH¢50 to each household towards tilling the land for the cultivation of crops)
• Temporary Income Support – GH¢100/month/household for 1 year: (BPA had taken the view that the resettled families would need some time to properly adjust to their environment and re-establish their income generating activities even though the new environment was considered to be an improvement on the old settlement. A period of one year was considered to be a reasonable time for this adjustment to effectively occur. For this one year adjustment period, a monthly allowance of GH¢100 was paid to each household as support while the new farms were being tendered until full production.)

4. Livelihood enhancement: Assist economic activities. BPA has since developed Livelihood Enhancement Business Modules to employ the Project Affected Persons (PAPs)

Implementation of the resettlement programme was been divided into three (3) parts as follows:

• Phase A – Covered four (4) communities living at the construction site.
• Phase B – Covered three (3) communities living in the area to be inundated.
• Phase C – Covered the personnel of the Game and Wildlife Division living at the old and dilapidated Bui Camp.