1-Village, 1-Dam: Gov’t wasting our money and exposing us to risks - Isaac Adongo

Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolgatanga Central Constituency, Hon Isaac Adongo has described as a complete waste of taxpayers’ money by government to construct Dams under one of its much touted initiatives called One-Village One-Dam.

Government has embarked on the construction of dams in communities in the northern part of the country in a bid to encourage and support all year round farming and also provide water for animals.

This initiative however appears to have become an albatross on the neck of government with most of the newly constructed dams losing shape, banks getting washed away and in some instances claiming lives.

Following the death of three children aged 9, 10 and 11 who were identified as Ayinsone Ayine, Dominic Akurugo and Raphael Aduko respectively, Isaac Adongo paid a visit to the dam site in Soe, a suburb of Bolgatanga and to sympathise with the families of the deceased children at the weekend.

It has been reported that the children had gone to the dam to swim, but got drowned with eyewitnesses suggesting the children were four but one survived.

In an interview with journalists on the sidelines of the visit, the vociferous lawmaker said the current state of the dam clearly shows the lack of purpose of the dam and is being constructed by an amateur contractor who does not adhere to health and safety measures as required at construction sites.

Describing the entire project as a waste of public funds, Mr. Adongo said “the dam that is not even complete is already being washed away. So imagine if there is a major downpour and these are likely to be farms in the raining season and the people are working there, can you imagine if this dam breaks its banks, what will happen to the people down there and yet we have not had any serious rain. We have just about two downpours and the dam is already washed ashore. This is a complete waste of public funds”.

He further charged government to act as quickly as possible by getting compensation for the families of the deceased children and ensure that the contractor executes the job in its standard terms.

“We want the government to act as quickly as possible. The contractor must come and compensate the families that lost lives because this is not what was awarded and this is not what we were expecting. Today, we are on a construction site that was completely given to an amateur” he added.

According to him, government is exposing residents of the communities hosting the dams to risks while citing similar incidents of deaths in the newly constructed dams in Bongo also in the Upper East Region.