The severe drought in northern Ghana has highlighted the apparent inefficiency of the One Village One Dam initiative, a flagship programme of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government. The programme, which was heavily promoted during the 2016 election campaign, saw between GH¢150 million and GH¢200 million invested in the construction of about 440 dams across the five northern regions. The goal was to ensure water availability for irrigation during the dry season.
However, after just two straight months without rain, large tracts of farmland are experiencing massive crop losses, raising concerns about food security. Farmers are struggling to repay loans taken to cultivate their crops, as the dams have failed to provide the necessary water for irrigation.
Due to the drought’s severity, the government is now compelled to allocate GH¢8 billion to combat the crisis and provide relief to affected communities. This has led to widespread questioning of the value and effectiveness of the One Village One Dam project.
Several stakeholders have expressed disappointment in the initiative. Edward Kareweh, the immediate past General Secretary of the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU), labeled the programme a failure, citing wasted resources and a lack of tangible benefits. In an interview with The High Street Journal, Kareweh stated, “Many of these so-called dams either do not hold enough water or, in some cases, are non-existent.”
Franklin Cudjoe, President of IMANI Center for Policy and Education Africa, also raised concerns about the status of the project. In a Facebook post, he questioned the effectiveness of the dams and asked when they would start providing the intended benefits.
The President of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, Mr. Awal Adugwala, expressed disappointment in the project’s failure, attributing it to a lack of adequate consultation with stakeholders to obtain proper assessments and engineering insights. Mr. Adugwala also criticized the unfulfilled promise of the Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam, which was expected to address many of the region’s water challenges.
“The Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam would have been able to solve a lot of problems, and it would have been able to collect enough water from the spillage of the Bagre Dam, which would be sufficient for our farmers to use. The government has to conduct proper assessments to construct dams,” Adugwala said.
As the drought continues to ravage the Northern Region, many are questioning whether the substantial investments in the One Village One Dam initiative were well-spent. With political campaigns in full swing, the effectiveness of government spending remains a critical concern, particularly as Ghana continues to grapple with high debt levels and limited revenue, largely due to poorly invested public funds.
