Mr Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese who is an Aide to the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Damongo Constituency of the Savannah Region has said that it is cheap politics for Nana Addo and his NPP to seek to turn the people of Gonjaland against their own son, John Mahama through “a scam” of a sod cutting for the Damongo Water project.
“The sod cutting ceremony scheduled to take place in Damongo on 29th July, 2020, is not just a camouflage but a total scam. Why? All that is to try to boost the chances of the NPP in the Constituency and an attempt to get at President John Mahama”; Mr Gbeadese stated.
He said the said water project which Damongo is supposed to benefit is not “Damongo water Project” as per the records in Parliament and at the Ministry of Water Resources. “The said project is suppose to be a Tamale water project of which Damongo is treated as a suburb or a community amongst 27 others, including Tolon, Kumbungu, Pong Tamale, parts of Tamale township and others. In fact, the office of the said project will be in Tamale while the facility itself will be in Yapei. So on what bases is the sod cutting scheduled to be done in Damongo?”; Mr Gbeadese asked.
The Damongo MP’s aide explained that the NDC in around 1996/97 built and expanded the existing water facility to tap water from the Damongo Agric Dam to serve the Damongo township and that round 2002/03 when the Agric Dam needed to be desilted to allow for the facility to keep running, the NPP under President J.A. Kufour sat and allowed the dam to dry out which ultimately resulted in the current water problems we have in Damongo.
“So, it is not true that Damongo never had taps flowing since time immemorial, but that the taps stopped flowing around 2002 and the NPP sat for 6 years without doing nothing”.
Mr Gbeadese further explained that preparations for the extension of water to Damongo and it environs was started in 2015 an by December 2016, even before the 2016 election, the documentations and the loan facilitations were being done. “So, on the 20th of December, 2016, a loan facility of $35m was arranged and was to be laid before Ghana’s Parliament”; he disclosed.
“Let me reiterate this point, that after John Mahama is sworn in on January 7, 2021 Insha Allah, Damongo water project will be treated as a stand-alone project and will be expedited far below the 5 year period this Bi-Water turnkey project has been scheduled to last. In effect, Damongo will get water earlier than 2025”; Mr Gbeadese concluded.
Source: nkilgifmonline.com
