The Ministry of Special Development Initiatives has debunked assertions by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that dams built under the government’s One village, One dam project are not fit for purpose.
It said the NDC was seeking to score cheap political points with the claims that the dams were not properly constructed.
At a press conference last Wednesday at one of the dam sites in Nakpachie in the Yendi Constituency, the Communication Officer for the NDC, Mr Sammy Gyamfi, said the dams in their current state would not be able to serve their intended objectives.
The press conference was held as part of the party’s “Moment of Truth” series after the NDC team, led by Mr Gyamfi, had toured three of the dam sites in Adibo and Nakpache in the Yendi Constituency and at Zakpalsi in the Mion Constituency.
Ministry’s response
But a statement issued by the Communication Officer of the Ministry of Special Development Initiatives, Mr Kabori Awudu Moro, said the government had itself declared the dams cited by the NDC as uncompleted.
“The Nakpachie and Adobo dams are part of the uncompleted small earth dams which the ministry hopes to complete before the next rainy season commences.
As such, they never harvested water during the last rainy season,” it said.
It said a little due diligence and background check at the community could have attested to this verifiable fact.
“The ministry, therefore, views the implementation of the IVID Initiative as a work in progress and has, therefore, put in place a strong monitoring mechanism to monitor the state of the dams and initiate corrective measures as and when it is required”.
NDC respond
But in a statement rebutting the ministry’s claims, the NDC said all the dams visited by the party were dams that the government had declared completed and had been used by farmers during the rainy season in 2019.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the 1V1D sites we visited in the company of journalists in the Adibo and Nakpachie communities in the Yendi Constituency, are all completed 1V1D projects,” it stated.
It asked the government to explain to Ghanaians what specific features those two projects lacked and how different they were from completed 1V1D projects.
It also asked the government to publish the full list of the completed 1V1D projects so that the opposition, the media and Ghanaians at large could fact-check and ascertain the veracity of the claims being made by the ministry.
Source: Graphic.com.gh
