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14-year old boy drowns at abandoned 'One Village, One Dam' site

The site has been reserved as one of the places for governments plan of providing each village in the three Northern Regions a dam.

Alhassan Arisu, the deceased died at the abandoned site when drowned while trying to swim with his friends.

Eyewitnesses told Accra based Starr FM that his body was recovered by local search party and other swimmers and rushed to a nearby health facility, where he was pronounced dead. The body has been handed back to the family and was buried at the site of the incident, in line with custom.

The death of the boy has reportedly sparked anger in the community as residents blame government of creating a deadly reservoir in the village.

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The dam has been the only source of drinking water for the villagers and nearby for decades but turned into a swimming pond after a truncated effort by government to develop it into a “one village one dam” site, a key poverty eradication initiative by president Akufo-Addo aimed at ensuring year-round farming in the north of the country, where rainfall patterns are so deplorable that agric activities are done once throughout the year.

Seidu Damba, brother of the disclosed that that development of the dam started on July 5, three days before the president toured the region on a three-day working visit. He said contractors abandoned the site after the president ended his tour and left the region.

“Initially, we had opposed to the construction of the dam because it is very closer to the community and the fear was even that in the likelihood that the dam is flooded many of the houses were going to be destroyed. First of all, we are demanding the complete closure of the dam. We will surely sue the government and contractor for negligence,” Seidu stressed.

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