90% of dams under 1V1D can’t be used for irrigation purposes - Research

A research conducted by the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana has revealed that about ninety (90%) per cent of dams constructed under Ghana’s One-Village One-Dam initiative in the Upper East Region cannot be used for irrigation purposes.

The Research funded by OXFAM revealed that there was poor consultation with other government agencies including the District Assemblies during the planning phase of the initiative which resulted in the assemblies not effectively supervising the project.

The research led by Prof. Joseph Yaro of the Department of Geography of the University of Ghana established that so far 83 out of the 140 dams promised by the Akufo Addo government have been completed representing 59%.

According to Prof. Yaro, it would be much more useful in the future if aggregated the sums and dug dams in places where dams are possible.

“Most of these dams basically can be classified as domestic use or livestock dams in terms of usage, not for farming. So irrigation really is out of the question for probably 90% of the dams.”

The New Patriotic Party(NPP) in the run-up to the 2016 general elections promised to construct 570 dams in the upper part of the country to help farmers who are mostly into irrigation farming.