Independent presidential aspirant and investment banker, Dr Samuel Sarpong Ankrah, has condemned the 1 Village, 1 Dam project by the New Patriotic Party administration.

He said it is a failure as a government to place relevance on the building of dams, particularly in the 21^st century rather than focusing on more innovative ways to solve problems.

He said such initiatives are proof of misplaced priorities and a lack of responsiveness to pressing issues.

Dr Ankrah was speaking in an interview with Joy Prime’s Roselyn Felli on the Prime Morning.

“The fact that you are building dams shows that you are a failed government. Why would you want to build a dam? Everybody should have access to clean water,” he said.

“But is the dam not going to give you clean water?” Roselyn Felli asked.

“Well, I mean, you’re building dams and boreholes. The dams were more or less boreholes technically,” Dr Ankrah replied.

The business strategist further argued that in the digital age, where technology offers sophisticated water management solutions, it may be outdated to invest in traditional dam.

In defence of his argument, Dr Ankrah, who doubles as a development economist, shared a story of an old woman lamenting at one of his campaign trails at Damango about the bad state of the pond in her community and how the government has offered little to no help all her years living there.

The woman, according to him, has lost trust in politicians because she has not benefited from politics. But he thinks “politics need to change the lifestyles of people,” adding that the government needs to avoid repeating the same developmental policies unless such projects are targeted at agriculture.