Disaster looms— As VRA prepares to spill Volta Dam (Front Page)

COMMUNITIES in six of the nation’s regions are in danger of being flooded when the Volta River Authority (VRA) begins spilling excess water from the Volta Dam this week to avoid possible damage to the dam.
The floods are also likely to affect more than 177,000 people nation-wide, according to estimates by the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO).
It will be the first time in 20 years that the VRA will be spilling water from the dam, which is the main source of hydroelectric power generation in the country.
The six regions which have communities either close to the Volta Lake or lying along the path of the lake are the Northern, Greater Accra, Brong Ahafo, Ashanti, Eastern and Volta.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Mrs Getrude Koomson, the Head of the Public Relations Unit at the VRA, said some of the specific areas at the lower course of the lake and most likely to be affected were the Dangme East and West districts in the Greater Region and the Afram Plains, which covers areas within the Ashanti, Eastern, Brong Ahafo and Volta regions.
The places likely to be affected are Kete Krachie, Nkwanta, Kpando, the North and South Tongu districts in the Volta Region; Atebubu, Yeji and Kwame Danso in the Brong Ahafo Region; Damongo, Salaga and Bimbila in the Northern Region, among other towns and villages.
To avoid a massive disaster, Mrs Koomson said the VRA had communicated with opinion leaders in the affected districts through the mass media within the past two weeks to let the inhabitants prepare for any eventuality.
For his part, the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Armah Ashietey, yesterday instructed the district chief executives (DCEs) for Dangme East and East to ensure that the inhabitants close to the lake, as well as those living downstream, relocated to safer areas.
He asked that radio announcements and other methods of communication on the issue must be intensified to inform the people about the possible disaster and the urgent need for them to leave the area for safety grounds.
The Greater Accra Regional Disaster Management Team yesterday held a crucial meeting with the political heads of the two districts at the Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) on how to mitigate the possible effects of the spillage and educate the inhabitants on how to handle the situation.
The team was made up of representatives of the Ghana Police Service, personnel of the 48 Engineers Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces, the Ghana National Fire Service, the Ghana Health Service, the Bureau of National Investigations and NADMO, with the regional minister as chairman.
A rough figure gathered from the Greater Accra Regional NADMO Secretariat indicated that about 12,997 people lived in the Dangme East District, while 14,000 lived in Dangme West.
The Greater Accra Regional NADMO Co-ordinator, Mr Winfred Tesia, said following a wireless message from the NADMO Headquarters on the possible spillage of the Akosombo Dam and the subsequent meeting between the Greater Accra Regional Secretariat and the Dangme East and West districts, on one hand, and officials of the VRA, on the other, on October 11, 2010, a monitoring team was put in place to check the daily levels of the dam.
He said since then, it had come out that the water level kept rising, adding that looking at the way things stood now, there was no option left for the VRA but to get some of the water out of the dam to save that important national asset.
The maximum operating level of the dam is 278 feet, but the level as of yesterday, Monday, October 18, 2010, was 274.80 feet.
A table from the regional disaster management team indicated that the water level, which had been 273.30 feet on Monday, October 11, 2010, had quickly risen to 274.80 feet by Monday, October 18, 2010, an indication that the dam was building up too fast and must be relieved of excess water.
At an earlier meeting, the Greater Accra Disaster Management Team had identified the lack of logistics and co-ordination among the team members as the major challenge.
The meeting had been held between a team from the North Dakota National Guard in the US and the Greater Accra team in Accra.
The US team was in Ghana to meet with representatives of the three northern regions and the Greater Accra Region on disaster management.
In his remarks, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Holly of the North Dakota National Guard had suggested the creation of an emergency operation centre where the disaster management team could meet in times of disaster to co-ordinate affairs,
For his part, Nii Ashietey had called for assistance in the area of training of local volunteers to enable them to offer basic help when disaster struck in the communities.