Accra, Oct. 18, GNA – Mrs Francisca Martey, Deputy Director and Head of Research and Applied Meteorology at the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet), says real-time data indicate that above normal rains from the Sahelian countries are necessitating the spillage of the Akosombo Dam.
“Once they get more rains from that enclave, it will automatically flow down south through about six tributaries, including the White and Black Volta that feeds Lake Akosombo,” she told the Ghana News Agency in Accra.
Mrs Martey said the situation had been compounded by above normal rainfall distribution in the North Eastern part of the country.
“On September 4, 2023, we published our forecast, notifying all stakeholders, including the Volta River Authority (VRA), Ghana Health Service and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) about the above normal rainfall distribution.
“We projected that, there was a high chance of above normal rainfall in the North Eastern part of the country where the White Volta gets its rainfall.
“These multiple sources of water flowing into the Akosombo Lake from Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin and those from the North East region are the problem,” she said.
Mr Eric Asuman, Acting Director of GMet, said: “Our work as GMet is mostly advisory to all stakeholders. Where necessary, we make the effort to provide training and additional information to partners especially with changing weather patterns.”
About 6,000 people in nine districts in the Volta Region have been affected by the spillage of water from the Akosombo Dam, which commenced on 15th October, 2023, by the VRA.
The VRA said the Akosombo Dam was currently receiving over 200 percent more water from its sources.
“If we have two days of continuous rainfall and we fail to spill the Dam, it could break,” Mr Edward Ekow Obeng-Kenzo, Deputy Chief Executive of the VRA in charge of Engineering and Operations, said in a radio interview monitored by GNA Monday morning.
He said the last time the Dam experienced such inflows was in 2006 and 2010.
Akosombo Dam, a rock-filled dam on the Volta River, near Akosombo, was completed in 1965 as part of the Volta River Project.
Its construction was jointly financed by the government of Ghana, the World Bank, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
The Dam rises 440 feet (134 m) above ground level and has a crest2,201 feet (671 m) wide and a volume of 10,451,000 cubic yards (7,991,000 cubic m).
The Dam is used for commercial fishing and navigation.
The large electric-power-generating capacity (912 megawatts) of the Akosombo Dam provides surplus for sale to neighbouring countries.
The Dam supplies electricity to a large, economically important aluminium smelter in the coastal town of Tema.
GNA