The New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) ambitious promise of one village, one dam in the Northern regions has come crashing down as the shallow dams dry up, leaving farmers in despair.
Initially hailed as a game-changer for year-round farming and breaking dependency on rainfall, the reality is starkly different. Despite President Akufo Addo’s reassurances and pledges of benefits, the Northern farmers are left high and dry.
In a recent documentary titled “Thirsty Dams,” monitored by WhatsUp News, farmers voice their frustrations over failed dam constructions that collapse within months, leaving crops to wither.
The Documentary shed light on the plight of farmers in the Northern regions following the dried up dams.
A farmer from Bongo in the Bongo district of the Upper West region, was captured lamenting about the current state of the dams.
“When these people came and promised to construct dams for the people, ask them, ask the NPP people what the people did for them – they voted massively for them.
When the dam was built here, we were happy but nowadays, there is no water in the dams. The dams only take us two months to dry up – in October – November, when you see our pepper farms, you would like it, but well, there is no water again,” the distraught farmer indicated.
Another farmer from Kajelo in the Kasina- Nankana district in the same region also poured out the frustrations of the farmers.
He said, months into the construction of the Kajelo dam, the embarkment broke off because it could not hold excess water. “Before we realized it, there was a disaster – the bank of the river was washed away by a heavy rain. Everyone in the community was sure, that disaster was as a result of shoddy work by the contractors, which we identified from day one,” he said.
As a result of that disaster, farmers have had to abandon their plants before harvesting time, because the dams have dried up and the water could only be accessed once a week.
The farmers and residents have for several months been recommending the deepening and widening of the dams to forestall a recurrence of such disasters and to cater for the large number of farmers in the enclave but no attempt had been made by the authorities to address the issue and the incessant calls and cries to government to intervene, have all gone unheeded.
In the light of these concerns, the disheartened farmers have decided not to engage in dry season farming any longer, but to resort to the old pattern of waiting for the rains.
Calls for urgent intervention to deepen and widen the dams have fallen on deaf ears, forcing farmers to abandon dry season farming and revert to old practices.
As the 2024 elections loom and the Akufo Addo government nears its end, the once-promising 1V1D policy has left farmers idle, fields scorched, and dreams shattered. The exodus of young people in search of better opportunities further highlights the policy’s failure to deliver on its lofty promises.