Government’s One Village One Dam promise has come under criticism as some residents of the Upper East region have begun to question the construction of some of the supposed dams.

Although the projects are at various stages of completion, these residents say work done so far is sloppy.

According to the residents who spoke to A1 Radio’s Joshua Asaa, what has been constructed are not dams but dugouts. They go on to describe work done so far as disappointing.

The weather pattern in the northern parts of Ghana is characterised by low rainfalls and prolonged periods of drought.

For this reason, farmers in the region, unlike their counterparts in the south, cannot engage in all-year-round cultivation of crops. They also lose many of their livestock because the animals die of thirst in the dry seasons.

Zuarungu Gono Dam

The end result of this is the migration of the youth to the southern parts, in search of almost non-existent greener pastures.

To help mitigate this problem, President Nana Akufo-Addo, as flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party in 2016, made a campaign promise to construct dams in every village in the Northern part of the country.

“You have been hearing me talking about ‘One District, One factory’. As far as this part of the world is concerned, I even want to go further and talk about 1 Village 1 Dam, to make sure that in every village, we have a functioning dam to support agriculture”

Then-candidate Akufo-Addo made the promise before the Bolgatanga traditional council while on a campaign tour of the Upper East region, accompanied by his running mate Dr Mahamadu Bawumia.

Nana Akufo-Addo with the Chief of Sekote

Fast forward to 2019, President Akufo-Addo’s government is in its third year but not much is seen of the well-touted ‘1 Village, 1 Dam’ policy in the Upper East region.

The region was allocated 140 of the dams promised but so far, only 40 are said to have been constructed in all the 15 municipalities and districts. 

Apart from what the residents describe as poor quality of the dams, they say the contractors have failed to put safety measures around them. 

In Bongo and Bolgatanga the residents see the dams as death traps having claimed six lives in the two areas.

Paulina Patience Abayage, with A1 Radio’s Joshua Asaah

Upper East Regional Minister, Paulina Patience Abayage expressed regrets about the deaths recorded at the project sites and vowed not to sign contract certificates for the dams that have defects.

“Some of them have been defective. Two of them have come to my attention so far; one in Kajelo in the Kassena-Nankana West District and one in Soe in the Bolga Municipality.

“The only thing I can assure you as the regional minister is that I sitting here will ensure there is value for money. So I have told the consultant that from now, I am putting on hold the signing of payment certificates”

The regional minister touted the NPP campaign promise as an achievement, indicating that the dams constructed will serve the purpose of all year round farming.

Professor David Millar

But President of the Millar Institute for Transdisciplinary and Development Studies, Professor David Millar disagrees. 

The scholar who doubles as an agriculturalist and development consultant believes government has failed in the implementation of the campaign promise.

He said typical of testing of what is said to be dams, after three years “most of them will dry out if they are not well-designed. That is why I say for the whole idea, I will give them 20%, and 80% is all failure.”