Parliament to verify 116 dams

Parliament’s Committee on Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs is expected to visit various sites in the Northern Region where the government says it has built or is building dams as part of the One village-One dam policy.

The move, according to the Vice Chairman of the committee, Abraham Odoom, will enable the members to verify the claims and counter-claims.

The move comes after former president John Mahama, on his recent tour to the Northern Region, questioned the whereabouts of the dams.

In a response, Deputy Information Minister, Pious Enam Hadzide claimed the government has constructed 116 dams out of the 570 it intends to build.

In an interview with Class News, Mr Odoom said the committee will tour the north to ascertain things for themselves.

He said: “The committee of Agriculture, we are going to go around very soon. In a recent briefing that we had with the Special Project Initiative Minister, Madam Hawa Koomson, she came to parliament to brief us and she told us about a number of dams constructed… She said they’ve started, so, we are going to go round to do a verification.

“As the Minister of Information is saying, he relies on information from the technical ministries, once he is saying it, we take it that it’s true. As for the former president [John Mahama], he is doing his campaign, we should all understand that he is not visiting sites, he’s visiting his delegates, so, it’s likely he cannot see the dams, so, the former president should save us all these, he can also give us evidence of where he has gone [and saw no dam].”