Minister for Special Development Initiatives, Mavis Hawa Koomson has revealed that proper dams cost at least $3 million to construct and not the GH¢250,000 that has been devoted by her outfit for the construction of One Village One Dam.

According to her, the amount devoted to a project currently being implemented in the northern part of the country is the money worth of what they have been given.

“We [NPP] said one village, one dam. We didn’t say…one village, one Bui dam or Akosombo dam…Look at the cost, 250,000 Ghana cedis if you are constructing a meaningful dam you don’t need anything less than 3 million dollars; 3 million dollars oo, not Ghana cedis,” she told journalists in Parliament.

“…if I’m constructing a 250,000 Ghana [cedis] dam, then what kind of dam are you expecting from me?” she asked in a video that has gone viral.

The comments of the sector minister come at the back of concerns raised by residents of the north who say what they were promised to appear to be different from what is currently being implemented.

Former Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University for Development Studies (UDS), Professor David Millar recently described as a failure governments One-Village One-Dam initiative.

Speaking in a documentary interview by Bolga based A1 Radio’s reporter Joshua Asaah and monitored by MyNewsGh.com, Professor David Millar, a development consultant and founder of the Millar Open University said the implementation of the One Village One Dam programme has been characterized by misplaced priorities, inappropriate siting and poor construction which have virtually negated the purpose and essence of the initiative.

“Some of them are misplaced. You don’t go giving a village that has a dam another dam and go to a village that has a whole river that doesn’t dry and give them a dam” he said.



The government earmarked GH¢94.5 million in the 2018 Budget for the implementation of the project in regions of the north.

The implementation of the project, however, has been met with some level of apprehension following what residents and development watchers have described as dugouts and not dams.