Promise and Fail: Akufo-Addo fails to deliver water to Tamale, Yendi, Damongo after sod-cutting spree

The people of Tamale, Yendi and Damongo are still without water four years after President Nana Akufo-Addo cut sods for water projects in these towns in the lead-up to the 2020 elections.

Getting water, one of the necessities of life, in these areas is as difficult as mining for some of the world’s precious minerals.

“The situation became critical and we travelled to the next village which is about four kilometres away for water,” Aisha Danlaadi, a mother of four who trades in provisions, told The Fourth Estate.

Aisha said there were days her children went to school late or did not go because they had to spend a lot of time and energy looking for water.

If anyone had told them in 2020 that four years down the line, they’d be so desperate for water to have to dig deep into the earth for it, the people of Changnaayili would have laughed it off: 2020 was a year of hope, optimism and a lot of promises.”

The little water they do get after long walks is hardly ever wholesome. It’s dirty and muddy, so they must use homegrown methods to purify it. Another Tamale resident, Hamza Mohammed, told The Fourth Estate that he uses potassium alum to purify the water he gets from a nearby village.

The quest for water forced Aisha and other residents of Changnaayili, a community near Tamale to take matters into their own hands. They dug a big hole in the earth, about the size of a football pitch, and about 10 metres deep until they hit the waterbed. It was a lot of work for which every member of the community had to chip in. As the men dug with axes and hoes, the women carried the sand away. And now, thanks to their community spirit, they have some water – still dirty, and muddy. But it’s water. It’s better than nothing. It’s not quite what they need but given the circumstances, it’s what they bathe and cook with and even drink.

If anyone had told them in 2020 that four years down the line, they’d be so desperate for water to have to dig deep into the earth for it, the people of Changnaayili would have laughed it off.

Year 2020 was full of optimism and a lot of promises. The elections were a few months away when President Akufo-Addo came to town and commissioned a project for the construction of a water treatment plant to serve the people of Tamale and surrounding areas, including Changnaayili. Now hope has turned into despair and the people of Changnaayili are in no mood for any more promises. All they want is clean water in their community. And they are not alone.

Changnaayili is just one of many communities in northern Ghana that are demanding the fulfilment of promises made to supply them with potable water in the lead-up to the elections in 2020 – promises made by none other than the president of Ghana himself.

These communities experience a short rainy season and a long and dry season. Their main water sources are streams, rivers, shallow ponds, hand-dug wells and boreholes which dry up in the dry season. Promising to address the perennial water crisis, President Akufo-Addo went on a sod-cutting spree in the north, raising the people’s hopes as he sought a second term in office in 2020. In just two days, and to great fanfare, he cut sods to mark the start of the construction of water treatment plants in Tamale, Damongo and Yendi.

“This will be, by far, the biggest water project in the five northern regions, and the second biggest in the history of our country,” he announced during the sod-cutting ceremony on July 29, 2020, in Tamale.

The $223 million Tamale water project was billed to produce 29.7 million gallons per day, tripling the current water supply to the growing population in Tamale, Ghana’s third fastest-growing city.

Four years later, the project is yet to produce a single drop of water.

The Yendi Water Supply Project was supposed to be financed with a $30 million facility from the India Exim Bank. It was meant to provide the Yendi municipality and its environs with 15,000 cubic meters of water daily to meet the water demands until 2040.

“When I told you that ‘great days lie ahead of Dagbon’, this is what I meant, as this project signals the beginning of infrastructural development for Yendi. And, as you know by now, when Akufo-Addo makes a promise, he keeps it,” President Akufo-Addo told the Overlord of Dagbon, Ya-Na Mahama Abukari II, at the sod-cutting ceremony.

The President’s next stop on the sod-cutting spree was at Damongo. Here the water project was estimated to cost $49 million.

“I indicated that one of the reasons for the creation of the new regions was to accelerate the process of development to all parts of the country. So, you can understand my excitement at the commencement of the Damongo Water Supply Project, because the pledge of extending development to all parts of Ghana is unfolding,” President Akufo-Addo said to a cheering crowd.

The construction of the water supply system, the president explained, was aimed at meeting the water demands of residents of Damongo and its surrounding communities until 2040, in line with government’s policy. It was going to serve 68,000 people, with an expected average water demand of 8,800 cubic metres per day.

Alhaji Abu Mahama Salange, Spokesperson of Chief of Damongo, Alhaji Abu Mahama Salange, who speaks for the chief of Damongo, says President Akufo-Addo promised in 2020 that the project would be completed within a year. Four years on, the project is yet to take off.

“After the sod cutting, we expected the construction to kickstart but every day it is promises upon promises and the contractor did not come around,” Alhaji Salange says.

“After the elections [in 2020] we started complaining. We were told that the contractor had arrived and would start the project soon until early this year [2024] when the MD (Managing Director) of the Ghana Water Company, Dr Clifford came around with his team and briefed the overlord of Gonja that there appeared to be no money for the promised water project,” he added.

At Yendi, the most common source of safe drinking water is the hand pump borehole, but seasonal changes in the water table have affected access to potable water.

The situation has become worse due to climate change challenges such as long droughts, high temperatures, erratic rainfall patterns and floods which lower groundwater levels and contaminate existing water sources, thus, posing a threat to access to quality and sustainable water, according to climate experts. This undermines Ghana’s drive to meet the Sustainable Development Goal 6 of the United Nations which aims to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all by the year 2030 – six years from now.

Alhaji Abdul-Raman Mohammed, Secretary to the Overlord of Dagbon, says multiple follow-ups and reminders to ensure President Akufo-Addo and his government fulfil their promise have not yielded any result. And Yendi continues to thirst.

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While the projects commissioned by President Akufo-Addo are yet to start, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia cut sod for a World Bank-funded Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion initiative at Yendi. The event, which took place in October 2023, was to provide critical social infrastructure like water to communities like Yendi in the Northern region and Oti region.

The Vice President announced that the projects would include the provision of water, the construction of school buildings, health facilities, markets, dams and other critical physical infrastructure.

Our checks reveal that Yendi, for instance, is yet to see any water project being constructed.

Ghana Water MD says debt restructuring affected projects

Managing director of the Ghana Water Company (GWCL), Dr Clifford Braimah, claims the Ministry of Finance’s announcement of a debt restructuring programme in 2022 caused the banks not to release funding for the water projects in Tamale, Damongo and Yendi.

“No bank will spend a penny if they are not sure of getting their money. So, they held on. And so, Tamale, Damongo, and Yendi could not come on,” Dr Braimah told The Fourth Estate.

The Municipal Chief Executive of West Gonja, Karim Musah Kusubari, repeated Dr Braimah’s point on funding. “Maybe financial problems or maybe they are still doing documentation and I can’t best tell or explain,” he added.

Now, according to the GWCL’s MD, Ghana is still chasing funding for the projects from the banks in 2022. Why then did President Akufo-Addo announce that the government had secured funding for all the water projects during the sod-cutting ceremonies in 2020?

 Tamale, Yendi and Damongo projects at various stages of completion – Finance Minister

Though The Fourth Estate has confirmed that the proposed water projects in Tamale, Yendi and Damongo were yet to start four years on, the Finance Minister gave a false account to Parliament in July 2024.

During the presentation of the 2024 mid-year budget review to parliament on July 23, 2024, the Minister for Finance, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, said that the non-existent Tamale, Yendi and Damongo water projects were at various stages of completion.

“The following are at various stages of completion: Wenchi Water Supply Project; Sekondi-Takoradi Water Supply Project; Keta Water Supply Project; Yendi Water Supply Project; Tamale Water Supply Project; Damongo Water Supply Project; Sunyani Water Supply Project; and Techiman Water Supply Project,” he said.

This came as a surprise to many and got them asking why leaders are not being honest and truthful to Ghanaians.

In the meantime, Dr Braimah says the GWCL is constructing some boreholes for the Yendi Community as a temporary measure. He also said the company is constructing a treatment plant at Broto, a village in West Gonja, where an abandoned borehole could be made wholesome for use.

Communities like Changnaayili, however, will continue to wait as the GWCL MD said his outfit does not provide water to far-flung remote communities.