Non-involvement of Irrigation Development led to poor implementation

Non-involvement of the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) in the construction of the earth dams under the One Village One Dam policy is a major cause of the poor implementation of the policy, research findings have revealed.

The findings revealed that GIDA did not play any critical role in the implementation and supervision of the construction of the dams and major stakeholders, especially beneficiary communities were also not involved.
However, the research findings revealed that some dams being supervised by GIDA had been well executed and farmers were using them for dry season farming.

It therefore recommended for all irrigation dams to be executed by the GIDA with increased investment to implement and supervise, to ensure quality work and value for money.

The research was facilitated by the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) with funding support from GIZ and conducted on the Vunania and Gia dams in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality in the Upper East Region to ascertain the state, impact and sustainability of the two dams and the findings made known to stakeholders in Bolgatanga during a validation workshop.

The Vunania dam is being implemented by GIDA under the auspices of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture’s one village one dam initiative and funded by the World Bank while the Gia dam is also one of the dams under one village one dam policy implemented by a private consultant under the auspices of the Ministry of Special Development Initiatives.

Dr Joan Akandi Atulley, an Independent Researcher who shared the findings of the research noted that although the Vunania dam was yet to be completed, it was well constructed with large reservoir, compact embankment that would enable it to store water throughout the year to enable farmers use it for dry season farming.

This, she said, was due to the involvement of GIDA as the main implementers of the project which provided expert knowledge, supervision and guidance, increased funding and the community members were also involved at every stage of the implementation process.

The dam project had also developed an irrigable land to support farmers to produce during the dry season.
However, she said, the Gia dam had dried up by January, 2023, when the research was being conducted due to poor construction of structural features including the reservoir, dam wall and spillway and was not supporting farmers to do dry season farming.

She said GIDA was not involved in the implementation process and members of the community were not given notice nor were they involved in the execution of the dam.

Mr Adam Satter, the Supervising Engineer to the Vunania dam project, GIDA, revealed that the dam which started in 2020 was about 85 per cent completed and had developed an irrigable farmland of about 15 hectares to support dry season farming.

Dr Charles Kwowe Nyaaba, the Executive Director, PFAG, noted that the research was necessary to ascertain the reasons why the Vunania dam was well executed and was supporting farmers to engage in dry season farming while the initial dams under the one village one dam policy were poorly executed.

He noted that irrigation was key to sustaining agriculture especially in the northern sector and therefore it was necessary to ensure that lessons learnt from the implementation of the Vunania dam was replicated on other dams under the one village one dam programme, for proper construction and sustainability.

The Executive Director indicated that “even though the Vunania dam was about 85 per cent completed, it was completely different from other dams constructed under one village one dam and already, farmers were doing dry season farming there.

“So, we think this is a proper dam that we want the Ministry to take special interest in, to replicate the findings into the other dams to ensure that we are able to produce all year round.”