No work on Nakori Dam despite over GH¢15,000 allocation in 2014
No rehabilitation work has been done on the irrigation dam at Nakori in the Wa Municipality in the Upper East region, although the project is said to have received over GHC15,000 from oil revenues in 2014.
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The project, which was to ensure a constant supply of water to farmers around the dam especially during the dry season, has subsequently stalled as community authorities explain that any work on the dam dates as far back as 2006.
The Unit Committee Chairman of the Nakori Community, Abdul Karim Iddrisu told members of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) and journalists that the project had stalled since 2006 and was therefore surprising that it was been alleged that oil revenues had been allocated for the project as recent as 2014.
“I have been in this town all this while, I haven’t travelled anywhere for me to say I don’t know what is going on here. Since 2006 that they gave the project to Alhaji Adamu, we haven’t seen any work being done on the dam,” he said.
He added “they told us they will build a fence around it for those who have gardens here but they haven’t done that. The only thing they did was to dig two big holes but they haven’t even laid any pipes to allow the flow of water.”
Abdul Karim explained that the bridge over the dam was also constructed in 2006 and since then the contractor had not returned to the project site.
“They constructed the bridge in 2006 and that was it. They were supposed to lay pipes that will pump water to irrigate the farms especially during the dry season but that hasn’t been done. We started producing oil in 2010 and we haven’t seen any benefit from it till today,” he said.
Field visit
A visit to the dam on Thursday, July 21, by members of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) and some members of the Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists (IFEJ), revealed that no such rehabilitation has taken place.
The team was conducted round the dam where only two holes had been dug apparently for pipes to be laid to connect the dam to farmers on the other side of the dam.
The farms around the dam, therefore, had to look for their own source of water as the last time the contractor came to the site according to them was in 2006.
The field visit, funded by GIZ was to monitor projects that have been captured as having benefited from oil revenues in 2014 and 2015 from the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA).
Worrying situation
The Chairman of the PIAC, the committee that has oversight responsibilities over the management of the country’s oil revenues, Professor Paul Kingsley Paul Buah- Bassuah, described the situation as worrying looking at the importance of the project to the farmers.
He said approximately GHC15, 000 was given for works on the project, but although the dam was there, it is difficult to tell exactly what the money was used for.
He however, conceded that the project would have been very beneficial if given the necessary attention.
“What we can see here is the dam, but we don’t know what exactly the GHC15,000 was used for. When you look at the area, you can see it is a farming area and has big potential to boost agriculture; meaning that if the project is taken seriously it can help the community people,” he said.