Government rainwater harvesting initiative in northern Ghana and its impacts on local livelihoods and work-life balance: evidence from Savelugu Municipality

ABSTRACT

The “One Village One Dam (1V1D)” is a rainwater harvesting technology initiated by the Government of Ghana in 2017 to make water available all year round for animal watering, irrigation and domestic use in dryland areas in northern Ghana. However, scepticism about the potential of the 1V1D to stave off water stress and its associated impact on local livelihood activities is still prevalent in the country. This case study of Savelugu Municipality investigated the impact of the 1V1D on local livelihood activities and the work-life balance of women. Using qualitative data collection methods, 12 focus group discussions and seven key informant interviews were conducted in six communities in the municipality. The results showed that after >5 years of implementation, not much has been achieved for the intended purposes of the project, namely water for animal watering, irrigation and household consumption. Non-performance of the dams was attributed to engineering flaws like poor design and small size which often resulted in early dry out of the dams in the dry season. However, emerging activities like water commercialisation have provided a source of sustenance to water vendors. The services of the vendors save women time to fulfil the demands of work, family and personal life. Overall, the persistence of water stress in the study communities and activities of Fulani herdsmen, who allowed their cattle to pollute the dams’ water, necessitates the government to address the design flaws through retrofitting the existing dams and mainstreaming future 1V1D projects to effectively tackle water stress in Ghana’s dryland areas.

KEYWORDS:

• Agriculture
• food and income security
• One Village One Dam (1V1D)
• water commercialisation
• water stress
• Ghana

Acknowledgements

We gratefully appreciate the active participation of the research participants. We thank Ohene Asa for assisting with the map work. .

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors are thankful to the Office of Research, Innovation and Development (ORID), University of Ghana (UG) for offering support [grant number UG-ORID/BSU/III/WP3/POSTDOC/2021-2022/001] through the BSU III Building Stronger Universities Pilot Research Initiative project to support the fieldwork that resulted in the production of this paper.