Ghana eyes climate finance as dam spillage hits 40,000 people

Ghana will tap climate finance to address the long-term effects of climate change on the economy after excess water spillage from the country’s biggest hydroelectric dam displaced 40,000 people, Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-atta said.

The disaster underscores the importance of climate policy and fund raising to implement projects that tackle drought, flooding and other adverse weather events, the minister said in a statement on the ministry’s website.

Volta River Authority, operator of the 1,020-megawatt Akosombo Dam in the Eastern Region of the West African nation, let out water between Sept. 15 and Oct. 30 after heavy rains filled the dam beyond the maximum level. Communities in seven of Ghana’s 16 regions were affected by the floods.

The “government is working with VRA to expand the adaptive capacity of the Akosombo Dam to forestall incidences of this nature in the future,” Ofori-Atta said in the statement. The ministry will set aside 160 million cedis ($13.4 million) to rebuild the communities that have been submerged and support households that have been displaced, he said.