Mavis Hawa Koomson
Mavis Hawa Koomson, the Minister of Special Development Initiatives, on Tuesday, responded to some queries raised by former President Mahama on the whereabouts of the “One Village, One Dam” initiative.
The minister said her doors were open to assist the former president to the dam sites, saying “I have told him if he wants to know where the dams are, he should contact me or call me and I will take him there”.
The construction of small dams and dugouts across communities in the northern part of Ghana is the main project under the “One Village, One Dam” initiative.
A total of 570 dams are being constructed in the three northern regions to provide all-year availability of water for small-holder farmers to boost food security.
The minister announced that the ministry would, next week, post the locations and other relevant information about the 2,623 poverty eradication and infrastructural projects on its website.
Additionally, the projects would be linked to the Ghana Post digital address system for easy verification.
Ms Hawa Koomson responded to former President Mahama’s enquiries when she took her turn at the Meet-the-Press series in Accra.
The minister said there are 1,151 projects ongoing in the northern belt comprising the three northern regions, 781 in the middle belt made up of the Brong Ahafo, Ashanti and Eastern regions and 691 in the southern belt, comprising the Western, Central, Greater Accra and Volta regions.
Some of the projects include small dams and dugouts (one village-one dam), 1000-metric tonnes fabricated warehouses, water and sanitation for all, 10-seater water closet institutional toilets with mechanised boreholes, community-based mechanised solar-powered system and one ambulance per constituency.
The media encounter afforded the sector minister the opportunity to inform the public about the ministry’s activities and successes chalked up over the past 20 months. Besides, it enabled journalists and media practitioners to ask her questions of public interest for clarification.
On the 275 ambulances promised by the government for each constituency, the minister said, the tender document for the procurement of the ambulances were ready, saying that it had already gone through the procurement processes.
She said the government was just waiting for the suppliers who would win the contract and gave the assurance that the ambulances would arrive in Ghana by May or June next year.
Regarding the whereabouts of the One Million Dollar per Constituency allocated to the ministry in the 2017 Budget, the minister said the money expired with the budget at the end of 2017 because the ministry was putting the necessary structures in place for a smooth take-off since it was newly established under President Akufo-Addo’s administration.
She said, it couldn’t utilise the funds for the intended purpose, hence the funds were returned to government chest.
GNA