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In the sun-scorched plains of Northern Ghana, women, children, and men in many communities walk over very long distances, carrying head pans and ubiquitous yellow gallons to fetch water from hand-dug wells, muddy dams, shallow streams, and rivers, often in competition with their livestock and other domestic animals.
Men fetching water from a muddy dug-out in Pwalugu community while their animal drink from the same sourceIt is a daily routine that exposes hundreds of thousands of residents to serious health risks.
In an attempt to solve the problem, the government of Nana Akufo-Addo awarded more than 1000 contracts for the construction of various water projects to supply millions of residents scattered across the Northern, Upper East, Upper West, North East, and Savannah Regions.
More than five years after the contracts were awarded, some of the projects exist only on paper and not on the ground. And while some of those on the ground waste away – either abandoned or poorly-maintained – the communities they were meant to serve continue to reel in thirst.
Investigations by The Fourth Estate reveal that in villages across the five operational regions of the Northern Development Authority (NDA), the agency which supervised the contracts, hundreds of thousands of people still need to wake up before dawn and walk many miles to fetch water from unsafe sources like hang-dug wells, streams, muddy dams and rivers.
Works on some of the projects, mainly community-based mechanized solar-powered water systems and handpump boreholes, commenced in March 2018, while others were commenced in April 2020.
Untraceable projects
While some projects have been abandoned, others cannot be traced and therefore only exist in the NDA’s database.
Checks by The Fourth Estate in some project communities reveal that no projects were sited in those communities, even though in the records of the NDA, they exist.
For instance, in the Tamale Metropolis, Bamvim is captured in the NDA database as one of the beneficiary communities of the mechanised water system. Data shows that 36% of the project is done, but checks by The Fourth Estate show that no mechanised water project was started in the community. A former Assemblymember for the Bamvim Electoral Area, Tahiru Alhassan, corroborating our findings, says that though he had heard about the NDA water projects, Bamvim was not selected as one of the beneficiary communities.
Meanwhile, data further shows that GHC173,637.07 was paid to Hallworth Ltd, a construction firm, which did just 36% of the work on each of the seven projects for seven communities in the Tamale Metropolitan Area, including Bamvim community.
Similarly, in the Dungu community where data claims a mechanised water system project is 36% complete, The Fourth Estate was not able to locate any project on the ground after a diligent search and enquiries. A former Assemblymember for Dungu Electoral Area, Alhassan Imoro, says he is not aware of any NDA water project in his area.
Needs assessment before project implementation
Before the award of the contracts, a needs assessment was conducted in all five regions. The reports of the assessment showed the urgent need for water projects in all five regions. In each region, every district was given many projects based on its water needs.
“I would say that these projects were all laudable projects that communities really needed,” says Dr. Emmanuel Abeere-Inga, the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the NDA, who recently assumed office upon the change in government following the elections in 2024. “The execution of these projects would have changed people’s lives significantly,” he adds.
Thirsty community members lament
As most of the projects have come to a standstill, and others, not started at all or are untraceable, community members remain in dire need of water. Frustrations increase with each passing day, with every long walk to fetch water.
Aponyana Abana, a middle-aged woman at Asungi-Kunkua in the Bolgatanga East District of the Upper East Region, beamed with smiles upon seeing The Fourth Estate team in her community. Her reason for smiling? She thought our team was the construction crew returning to complete the abandoned water project in the area. She was soon to be disappointed, the beaming smile disappearing, when she learnt this was a team of journalists investigating the water supply situation.
Despite the disappointment, Aponyana Abane opened up and poured out her lamentations over the community’s dire water supply situation. “If we are to fetch water, we either have to cross the highway to a different community and queue for the water for hours, or go to a nearby dam. The dam, as we speak, is dried up. So, water for us here is a struggle,” she laments. “All that we are calling on the authority to do is to help us with even a hand pump borehole instead of the mechanized one that they have abandoned. We just want water to drink[water].”
An older woman standing by, Alarzure Aparka, chips in: “We just want clean water. Look at my age. Can I walk such a distance to fetch water? No. So, please, we need help.”
Another member of the community, Jacob Aparka, says not only has the abandonment of the project kept the community in thirst, but also, the land offered for the project has been wasted.
It was great news for us when we were told a borehole would be drilled here,” he recalls, pointing at the project site as he expresses his dissatisfaction. “But as we speak, we cannot fetch water from it. The land that we released for the project is also wasted. If I tell you the distance and hours our wives and children will have to walk to get water, it is sad. So, we are calling on the government to come back and complete this project for us.”
The story is not different in Gowrie-Kunkua, a community in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region. Here, a former Assemblymember for Gowrie Electoral Area, Donald Abongna Tia, and his successor, James Akulbila Nyaaba, narrate how residents compete with animals for water in a nearby dam.
Women fetching water from the Vea Dam in the Bongo District (left) and women fetching water from a dam in Ticheli community in the Tamale Metro (right).“Because the water there is not treated, we just go and fetch directly from the dam and use it for domestic purposes. We drink from there, we wash from there, and our animals also go there to drink. And that is the problem,” Mr. Abongna narrates sadly.
“If it’s in the rainy season, it’s always pathetic. If you happen not to harvest water from [the roof of your house], you can’t go there to fetch because when it rains, the water [gets] very dirty. It’s a very big problem for us”, Mr. Akulbila adds.
James Akulbila Nyaaba (left), Gowrie Electoral Area, and his successor, Donald Abongna Tia (right)At Yorogo-Asoregobisi, a community in the Bolgatanga Municipality, the wire fence around the abandoned solar-powered water system is torn apart after some falling branches from a huge baobab tree hit and destroyed part of the fence. Here, the NDA data obtained by The Fourth Estate indicates the project is 40% complete. Checks show the contractor drilled, hit water and fixed a machine for pumping water. Two concrete platforms were also erected – one to serve as a water fetching point, the other for mounting a water storage tank.
Abandoned mechanised water system in Yorogo-Asoregobisi community“All these structures, all these things fixed here were done properly, waiting for them to come and do the fixtures so that they can place the tank there,” Bawa Atule, Assembly member for Yorogo-Tengri Electoral Area, says, pointing at one of the concrete platforms. “I did follow-ups, and they were not able to even get the contractor.”
In the Sagnarigu Municipality of the Northern Region, The Fourth Estate team saw a mechanised water system project in Wovugu Yapalsi. Residents, including the Assemblymember for Gbririmah Electoral Area, Hudu Yabdow, say they do not know who initiated it. All they know is that it was abandoned almost as suddenly as it was started.
It’s only working now because the community members made cash and material contributions to have it completed when they realized construction had stalled. Instead of the solar power supply as indicated in NDA project documents for mechanised water systems, this one in Wovugu Yapalsi is powered by the national grid.
A functioning water system in Wovugu Yapalsi after community interventionMeanwhile, checks show that some of the completed water systems worked for only a little while and broke down. For instance, a former Assembly member for the Nahuyili Electoral Area in the Tatale Sangule District of Northern Region, Frank Bemond Nikal, told The Fourth Estate, two out of the three water systems in his area broke down not long after they were installed.
In the Wuvogu community in the Sagnarigu Municipality, also in the Northern Region, a similar mechanised water system is wasting away after it was completed, worked for a while, and broke down.
A broken down mechanised water system in Wuvogu communityA former Assemblyman of Mohiyabihi Electoral Area, Salifu Mohammed Mutala, directed The Fourth Estate to an incomplete water project located in an area called Agric. Here, apart from the pipe fixed into the ground indicating a borehole was drilled, there is nothing else to show.
In conducting interviews for this story, most of the current assembly members The Fourth Estate approached declined interview requests, claiming they had only been in office since 2023, well after contracts had been awarded for the projects between 2018 and 2020.
Costs, payments, and arrears
Data from the NDA shows that a total of 427 community-based mechanised solar-powered water systems and 964 hand pump borehole projects have been awarded on contract. The cost of all the projects put together stood at approximately GHC 61.8 million. And though the acting CEO of the NDA, Dr. Emmanuel Abeere-Inga, says the projects did not achieve their intended impact, approximately GHC 24.3 million has been paid to various contractors, with little or nothing to show for the expenditure.
In the Bolgatanga municipality, Bongo and Bolgatanga East districts, all in the Upper East Region, Shawud Co. Ltd handled all 18 projects, completed just 40% of each project, yet it was paid almost GHC1.3 million out of the total contract sum of more than GHC1.4 million.
Similar payments have been made in all the five regions for projects that are less than half complete, according to NDA data.
Contracts were awarded, but not all were completed
A total of 1,391 projects, made up of 427 mechanised water systems and 964 hand pump boreholes, were awarded to supply the five regions in the North with water. The total number of completed projects stands at 691, representing 49.7% completion rate, while 700 projects have been abandoned.
The contractors and consultants who handled the projects claim that cost overruns as a result of inflation made it impossible for them to start or complete the projects.
“We lost the value of all the money that we spent on that project,” one contractor, pleading anonymity, told The Fourth Estate. “When we were installing the pumps, a pump was slightly less than 4,000 Ghana Cedis at the time. As we speak now [in May 2025], a pump is more than 7,000 [Ghana Cedis].”
He further explains that as contracts were awarded on fixed terms, it made it difficult for them to seek variations in contract sums to reflect increments in the prices of building materials and equipment.
He describes the implementation of the water supply projects by the NDA as a “disaster”, considering the large number of incomplete projects dotted across the five regions of the NDA’s operational area.
He reveals that some of the contractors were paid but did not return to continue with the projects because they had already lost a lot of money.
“Some were later paid. But [after] what they went through to get the payments, they were not interested in going back to complete the projects,” he explains.
Another contractor who also pleaded anonymity, claims he completed all the borehole projects but was not paid the full amount. He also drilled and was to mechanise some boreholes, but when he raised the certificates for payments for the initial works, he was not paid, leaving him with no choice but to abandon the project.
A consultant who handled most of the projects in the Northern and Upper East Regions, also shares his frustrations: “We made a lot of proposals to the government, sort of the authority [NDA], to at least review the contracts. So, we had quite a number of meetings and then we gave them proposals as to how we could push the projects forward, but they never really acted on those,” he recalls.
Corroborating the issues raised by the contractors and consultants, Dr. Abeere-Inga told The Fourth Estate that the NDA is aware that a lot of contractors who have partially fulfilled their contractual obligations are yet to be paid.
“We have contractors coming and asking for payments. Some of them took loans, and you can imagine if you took a loan in 2020 till today, the overall burden on you,” he says. “People come with various forms of illnesses, attributing it to a lack of money to pay for medical bills.”
The contractors and consultants tell The Fourth Estate that the projects did not achieve their principal objective of resolving the dire water needs of the targeted communities. They blame the decision by the Akufo-Addo government to award the contracts on fixed terms for the high rate of abandonment because, when prices of building materials and equipment shot up, there was no allowance for varying the contract terms.
The available data shows that the Upper West Region has the highest number of completed water projects. Out of a total of 217 projects, 148 were successfully executed while 69 were abandoned.
fBefore he was dismissed from office, the then Chief Executive Officer of NDA, Sulley Sambian, had agreed to speak to The Fourth Estate but after his dismissal, he declined to speak to the issues but referred us to the current head of the authority.
Acting CEO of the NDA, Dr. Emmanuel Ebeere-Inga believes the projects are very important and need to be completed. For now, however, he says no budgetary allocations have been made yet for their completion.
“We are hoping that in the mid-year budget, things would have been clear. And from that point, maybe we will be able to now look at them and execute them as quickly as possible,” he says.
Until then, hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children will continue to rise before dawn, and walk long distances to compete for dirty, muddy, disease-infested water with their livestock and other animals in the five regions of Northern Ghana.
