Our greatest opponents are the contractors and consultants in charge of 1V1D, said Dr. Nyaaba
Contractors in charge of implementing the government’s one village, one dam programme have been referred to as the “number one enemies” of peasant farmers, according to Dr. Charles Nyaaba, president of the Peasant Farmers Association.
His remarks follow the JoyNews documentary “Thirsty Dams,” produced by Joojo Cobbinah, which demonstrated that the bulk of the dams built in accordance with the one village, one dam principle had fallen short of expectations.
Experts and interested parties claim that the dams were poorly built, which is why they can’t hold water for cultivation.
Dr. Nyaaba stated on JoyNews’ PM Express, “So it informs you that the sort of contractors that the ministry of special development initiative recruited to execute the dam building are our number one opponents.
He said that the majority of the policy’s dams were hastily built within a week and were consequently swept away by the rains.
“I went to Saka Dam, and the locals told us that when the contractor moved to the site, everyone arrived, the young people stopped working, and they went there and willingly assisted the contractor to work for free.
“After the first rain, three dams opened, including the Kajoro dam you mentioned. The second rain arrived, and then it passed. The embankment of another dam, the Kwalungu dam near Bongo, washed away, and the water began to drain, he claimed.
Dr. Nyaaba revealed that despite the government providing specifications on how the dams should be built to the contractors and consultants in charge of the project, the contractors had failed to follow the guidelines, resulting in the subpar dams.
“And if you take a look at the dam specification that they provided to the consultant, I have no idea what occurred; it simply complied with the requirements for dam building as a whole.
Every dam had to enclose an area of two hectares, with a minimum height requirement of five metres for the earthen embankment wall and five metres for the dam wall’s depth. Between 250 and 350 metres should make up the length of the embankment. Then, in order to stop erosion, each embankment should be covered in rock boulders, followed by grass.
“However, when we visited most of the dams, you’ll see that the reservoir was so little and there was nowhere they had performed layer-to-layer compaction because in the construction of a dam, you lay down one layer, compress it, then lay down another layer, compact it, and so on until you reach your five-meter mark. But in the majority of cases, the contractors just dumped the earth they had just dug up after leaving, he claimed.
Attempts to persuade the ministry of special initiatives to send the contractors back to the job site so they could make amends and finish the dams correctly, he said, had been fruitless.
To be completely honest with you, when we first contacted the ministry in 2020, they claimed to have been equally dissatisfied with some of the contractors and that they were bringing them back and that some of the contractors had not been fully paid. As a result, they’re going to make sure that they return and complete the reconstruction of any dams that can still be saved before they pay them. However, nothing has transpired subsequently,” he added.