Rebuilding the Mepe community must be a deliberate effort and taken as a Corporate Social Responsibility, Speaker of Parliament, the Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has urged the political class.
He has reignited the ‘Ubuntu‘ spirit in Ministers, Members of Parliament, MMDCEs and all, to recognise the fact that what affects one aspect of society affects all the others.
The Speaker has stated that providing an assistance to subdue the effects of the floods does not require a luxurious effort but rather a necessity expected of them.
“With very intentional efforts, we must make the rebuilding of Mepe a part of our Corporate Social Responsibilities as Ministers, MPs, DCEs and MCEs. Any challenge with a single or few communities in the Volta Region threatens the safety of the others. Recognizing that, this assistance required of us is not an added luxurious tax but a necessity expected of leaders in any crisis,” a statement delivered on the Speaker’s behalf by his counsel, Kofi Amoatey, on Saturday, August 10, 2024, during the grand durbar of the 68th Mepe Afenorto Festival stated.
He further urged that “as we exercise these efforts towards the rebuilding of Mepe, the Volta River Authority is reminded and cautioned to consider safer technical options that contribute to the sustainability of the Mepe Traditional Area and its environs. It will be unfortunate for Mepe to be rebuilt and resourced only for a disastrous crisis to be repeated.”
“We are all involved. Like I said earlier, synergy produces excellence in results. If we do our part and you fail to do yours in the capacity required of you, retardation will be the narrative,” he added.
The Akosombo Dam spillage
Residents of the North Tongu district, especially those from the Mepe community, suffered severe consequences of the Akosombo Dam spillage, a crisis that displaced thousands of indigenous people in the affected areas.
The Akosombo Dam, with its staggering 150 billion cubic meters storage capacity and a maximum operating level of 276 feet, has long been a crucial source of hydroelectric power for Ghana.
A significant increase in rainfall, according to managers of the Dam, the Volta River Authority (VRA), pushed water levels beyond the dam’s maximum operating capacity. According to the VRA, the Dam was faced with the risk of failure, therefore necessitating the spillage.
The exercise commenced on September 15, 2023, initially at a discharge rate of 183,000 cubic feet per second (cfs/day), which was later increased on October 9 due to the continued rise of the water level.
With the town of Mepe being the hardest-hit community, initial reports indicated that 8,000 individuals were displaced across eight communities, but the numbers skyrocketed to an alarming 31,000 as of October 19 2023. Families have been uprooted from their homes, losing their belongings and sources of livelihood overnight.
The spillage also had a profound impact on education in the region. Schools were forced to close, leaving pupils and students without access to education. The interruption in learning could have long-term consequences for the affected children, depriving them of their right to education and hindering their future prospects.
Calls came for the government to provide immediate assistance, including temporary shelter, food, clean water, and medical aid, to alleviate the suffering of affected communities.
About the Akosombo Dam
The Akosombo Dam, also known as the Volta Dam, is a hydroelectric dam on the Volta River in southeastern Ghana in the Akosombo gorge and part of the Volta River Authority.
The primary purpose of the Akosombo Dam was to provide electricity for the aluminium industry. The Akosombo Dam is the largest single investment in the economic development plans of Ghana. The dam is significant for providing both Togo and Benin’s electricity, although the construction of the Adjarala Dam (on Togo’s Mono River) hopes to reduce these countries’ reliance on imported electricity. The dam’s original electrical output was 912 megawatts (1,223,000 hp), which was upgraded to 1,020 megawatts (1,370,000 hp) in a retrofit project that was completed in 2006.
In 1961, the Volta River Authority (VRA) was established by Ghana’s Parliament through the passage of the Volta River Development Act. The VRA’s fundamental operations were structured by six board members with Ghana’s first President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah as Chairman.
The construction of the Akosombo Dam resulted in the flooding of part of the Volta River Basin and its upstream fields, and in the creation of Lake Volta which covers 3.6% of Ghana’s total land area.
Lake Volta was formed between 1962 and 1966 and necessitated the relocation of about 80,000 people, who represented 1% of the population. People of 700 villages were relocated into 52 resettlement villages two years prior to the dam’s completion; the resettlement programme was under the direction of the VRA.
The last time the Akosombo Dam community experienced flooding as a result of a controlled spillage of the dam was in 2010.
Source:onuaonline.com