Mavis Hawa Koomson
The Ministry of Special Development Initiatives has denied reports by the biggest opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the irrigation dams being constructed across the northern regions are drying up.
According to the Ministry, not a single dam has dried up as of February this year.
The Communication Director of the NDC, Mr Sammy Gyamfi, at a press conference organised at Nakpachie in the Northern Region at an area they claim has a dried-up dam, said: “The much-touted one village-one dam programme of the government has failed to achieve its intended purpose of driving all-year agriculture in northern Ghana”.
“You’ve heard Bawumia brag about one village-one dam; you’ve heard President Akufo-Addo himself, shamelessly, brag about having constructed dams in northern Ghana. What you see here today, this structure, this excavated area, which doesn’t even have a drop of water, not even a teaspoon of water, is what this government has been bragging about.
“That should let you know how dishonest, how deceptive, and wicked this government is”, Mr Gyamfi told journalists.
According to him, the “shoddy” job done by the government, is a total waste of taxpayers’ money
Responding to these claims on 505 on Class91.3FM, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Special Development Initiatives, Kabore Awudu Moro, said no dam has dried up.
“I visited not less than 150 small dam sites in February this year and of all the dams that I visited, none had tried up,” he told sit-in host Gemma Appiah.
He added that: “As of December 2019, we had completed 300 small dams. We’re left with 260 and out of the 260, we’ve started some but we couldn’t complete it before the rains started in December 2019 but it is our expectation that by the time the next rainy season sets in, we would have completed all the 560 small dams that we promised the people of this country.”
–Classfmonline