Following the lapses exposed in the construction of dams under the governing New Patriotic Party’s ‘One Village, One Dam’ policy, minority MPs of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) say the policy was nothing but a political gimmick.
According to them, the policy was not properly thought through before the implementation.
Their assertion comes after JoyNews premiered its latest documentary titled ‘Thirsty Dams’ which exposed the poor state of the dams constructed by the Akufo-Addo government.
Speaking to JoyNews on the back of the documentary, the NDC MP for Bodi Constituency in the Western North Region, Samson Ahi, said the documentary vindicates the NDC’s initial opposition to the policy.
Mr Ahi asserted that the 1VID policy was simply a stratagem deployed by the NPP government to deceive Ghanaians.
“I think this policy of One Village, One Dam was not thought through properly. It was a propagandist policy, it was a political gimmick. That is why all of us are now seeing that even though they claim they have got some dams they cannot even contain water.
“We are in the rainy season but when you go to most of the dams, you don’t see water in them which means they were not done properly,” he said.
He added that the NPP government implemented the policy just to fulfill a manifesto promise.
“How can we spend so much and we are not getting anything from it.? But I believe Ghanaians are the better judges. The evidence is there for everybody to see. When we complain that they were not doing proper dams, they said no, they were doing the right thing.
“So, today those communities where they dug those dams can testify whether or not government did a prudent job or not. But for me, I think this is a policy which was not thought through properly. It was rushed just to fulfill a manifesto promise that is why we are facing this situation,” Mr Ahi stressed.
On his part, the NDC MP for Akwatia Constituency in the Eastern Region, Henry Yiadom Boakye said the dams were not properly executed, and that communities are still facing challenges with water supply even in the rainy season.
“People were saying that we are not in the rainy season, now we are in a rainy season, it has been raining for the past three months continuously and almost every week and still, we are having a challenge. We are not seeing what actually was promised to us. So, the question is when are we going to see this,” the Akwatia MP said.
Commenting on the amount of money the government invested in the project which has failed to materialise, Mr Boakye said, “That is more than losses. How can we invest over 200 million into a project without getting revenue or something that will benefit the community?”
“So, we have lost a lot of money, very big money. You can just even invest it into a different sector to provide schools.”