THE WHITE VOLTA SUB-BASIN - Sustainable Irrigation Development in the White Volta Sub-Basin - page 24

and ridging at a fee. Some farmers, especially rice farmers, receive fertilizer
support which the farmers pay by selling their crops to ICOUR which then
deducts the cost of inputs supplied.
Non-Governmental Organisations
Several NGOs are involved in the agricultural and domestic water sector in
the Upper East Region. Some of them operate from a national or
international basis, while others are regional or even local. The most
important NGOs active in the water sector are the following (Birner et al.,
2005):
 Rural Aid (major player in the construction of hand-dug wells with
more than 500 wells constructed in the Upper East Region from 2000
to 2004 with funding from Water Aid and IFAD);
 Action Aid (funding of dam construction);
 Red Cross (funding of dam construction)
 Catholic Secretariat (funding of dam construction);
 World Vision International (construction of boreholes);
 Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) (funding of
boreholes);
 TRAX (training in land and water management, and funding of
boreholes).
Donor Agencies
The major sources of funding for water-related infrastructure are donor
agencies. Donor-funded projects are either implemented through the existing
administrative structures, or through special project implementation units.
Some of these donor agencies are the World Bank, International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD), Canadian International Development
Agency (CIDA), Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) and
the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) (Birner et al., 2005).
The World Bank funded the Village Infrastructure Project (VIP), a four-year
program under the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, aimed at the
improvement of rural infrastructure. The aim of the Programme was to
improve access to roads, transport, tracks and trails, small credit and
markets for the rural poor. The programme also engaged in building
boreholes, wind pumps, dams and dug-outs in the three Northern Regions of
Ghana. Through the Community Water and Sanitation Project, the World
Bank acted as the core donor for rural drinking water provision by the
CWSA.