body-container-line-1
18.03.2018 Feature Article

One Village One Dam, Is It A Political Farce Or An Achievable Project?

One Village One Dam, Is It A Political Farce Or An Achievable Project?
18.03.2018 LISTEN

The NPP one village one dam, just like the free education mantra caught the attention of majority of voters across Ghana with an untold success. But whereas free education has taken off in earnest, because there was an existing blueprint available to the government and the education minister, and also whiles there is an envisaged source of funds to finance it, it is meeting up with only few challenges, as compared with the one village one dam concept.

True as it is, there are several dams in the three Northern Regions, due to the aridity of the area, so that people and cattle can quench their thirst. It is believed that based on this concept, the one village one dam political idealism was formulated. But up until now, the question people always ask is, "how many irrigation dams have been built in any part of the three Northern Regions, and will there be any by 2020?

I personally wish to know if the government can tell Ghanaians how many villages there are in the three Northern Regions; what is the size of each village, and what is the population of farmers in each village? How much will it cost to build one irrigation dam, and what will be the total cost of building a dam in each village in the three Northern Regions, many of which are of varying sizes and population. Finally, who pays for the building of these irrigation dams?

Imagine there are 300 farmers in an average-sized village, with their farm lands several kilometres apart from one another, who will benefit from the one irrigation dam that will be built in that village? What happens to the others who don't benefit from it? Can't they be equal beneficiaries of the project? Of course no!!

Secondly, what size of irrigation dam will be built, and how many farming families will benefit from It? What type of crops will these farmers grow? Will it be the same small scale subsistence variety of crop farming or will it be large-scale commercialised? What sort of mechanical and chemical inputs will be provided for them to augment crop production, and finally, will it be the same local marketing system whereby farmers carry their wares to the local markets in headloads, or will there be processing factories available to cart them with their trucks from farm gates into their factories?

Answers to the above analysis are not yet available in any explanatory analysis to Ghanaians who sit appetent for the one village one dam to provide them with jobs and job creation opportunities.

Suggested Solutions
It will be best for government to turn these three Regions into a hub of business and agriculture, as already stated by Nana Addo in his 2008 NPP manifesto. Nana can do this by asking the chiefs for massive land for establishing several block farms of thousands of hectares, each equipped with drip irrigation system, bulldozers, ploughing tractors labour, etc. Each of these farms must be charged with producing a particular type of crop, different from what other block farms do, yet planned to produce all required crops for national consumption as well as for processing for export, ranging from livestock to all other cultivable crops. Even dung and livestock droppings can be used as bio-fertilisers on irrigated farms, instead of chemical fertilisers.

Whiles embarking on commercial farming in the three Northern Regions with available inputs and incentives, with factories available for processing them for export that would be sited as proximate as possible to farming sites, it will minimise long haul transportation, occasioning spoilages. Our youth, mostly who contemplate going on obvious dangerous green pasture adventures will be encouraged to find alternatives at home by venturing into available opportunities at home.

This however doesn't stop traditional subsistence farming as it has been for ages, it increases productivity and economic growth.

The same commercialised farming in the North can be replicated in the middlebelt savannah woodland as well as in the coastal belt, particularly to revamp the amort Komenda and Asutuare sugar factories, and many more.

In fact, I personally find the one village one dam mantra a political chicanery. In view of this, I think there's an alternative solution to everything if only there's a willpower to amend. The populace will appreciably understand and hail better than seeing nothing, or witnessing a failed project,or nothing at-all that has been promised.

body-container-line