Minister for Special Development Initiatives, Mavis Hawa Koomson has indicated that Ghanaians should not expect a meaningful dam with an amount of GHC 250,000 allocated to her ministry as the said amount can’t construct the Akosombo-like dam they want.
Speaking to Ghanaweb in an exclusive interview, the Minister said the pond-like dams constructed is exactly what the Akufo-Addo-led government promised Ghanaians during the 2016 electioneering period and not Akosombo-like dams.
According to her, a meaningful dam will take not less than 3 million dollars to be constructed and for that to be achieved, GHC250,000 will not do much.
The dams being constructed she maintained, are exactly what the NPP promised; dams solely for providing water for domestic and irrigation purposes.
Perturbation she says, is the least of her worries, on the contrary, she is proud of the progress being achieved under the 1-V-1-D project so far.
Replying her critics, she said “Look at the cost, GHC 250,000. if you are constructing a meaningful dam you don’t need anything less than 3 million dollars. So if I’m constructing a GHC 250,000 dam then what kind of dam are you expecting from me? That is the kind of dam we promised the people, we didn’t say we are constructing the 3 million or 6 million type of dam for them”.
Furthermore, the Minister said “We said one village one dam, we didn’t say or Bui dam or one Akomsobo dam for the village and when we say one dam in the village, some of us know the type of dam we are talking about, it’s not the bigger type, it’s for the people to use during drought and the animal will not go far so that people will steal them away or they will go and die on their way because if they are not getting water definitely they would die, so we needed some water close to the village.”
Comparing what her government has achieved and what the NDC government did while in power, she added, “I’m telling you that, the fact that NDC did something that is not as big as what we have and that’s why I’m proud of myself of what I’m doing because I have seen what they did and if you compare the two, you can see the difference”.
