The Upper East Regional branch of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has called on Mr Martin Alamisi Amidu, the Special Prosecutor, to initiate criminal investigations into the construction of “dugouts under the guise of One-Village, One Dam (1V1D).”

The party made the call on Thursday at a news conference addressed by its Regional Communications Officer, Mr Ahmed Saeed Tijani, at Zaurungu, in the Bolgatanga East District.

According to Mr Tijani, the contractor in charge of the Zuarungu Gono dugout, recently disclosed in a radio interview at Zuarungu) that his contract sum amounted to GH¢250,000.00.

“At the same time, other contractors of similar projects also quoted GH¢240,000.00 as their contract sums. With these great disparities in the cost of a dugout, one cannot escape the conclusion that these contracts lack transparency and are grossly inflated.”

“The fact of the matter is that, the 40 supposed “dams” that are ongoing are dugouts, but not dams, and these dugouts were shoddily constructed, leading to some reported cases of deaths of children due to the defective engineering features.”

“For instance, in the Bongo District where this initiative started, about eight “dugouts” have been done, including; those at Kulingu, Ayopea, Feo among others. As we speak, they have already claimed four innocent lives in the Bongo District,” Mr Tijani added.

The Communications Officer indicated that the Bolga-Soe“dugout” whose banks were washed away by a two-hour rainfall on April 25, this year, claimed three lives within a month after it was “shoddily” constructed, and added that the Kassena-Nankana West District which was also allocated 10 “dams have had its own share of the “shoddy work,” He said a dam in Kajelo, a village close to Navrongo, had its banks washed away on 25th April, 2019 after a few hours of rain, whilst other villages such as Sakaa, Kasugu, Kuliya, Katiu, and Kayoro had no water in their dugouts.”

Mr Tijani said the Bolgatanga East District had three of the 1V1D projects in Zuarungu, Gono, Kunkua and Dacheo, and noted that the Dacheo“dugout” recently had its banks washed away after some hours of rains.

The NDC urged Mr Amidu to “bring all persons guilty of dissipating our scarce resources on these ventures to book.”