Some misleading feature articles (some anonymous) and erroneous radio talks have come up during the disaster that was unleashed on the Tongus in the Lower Volta Basin in the wake of the Akosombo and Kpong Dam spillage since 15 September, 2023, and it is prudent and compelling to debunk the falsehoods being churned out.
To begin with, no one is against the spillage of the dams. No! It was necessary to spill the excess water, or else we would likely witness the tragedy that befell some people in Libya recently. The issue, however, is how the exercise was carried out. Before I get there, let me clarify: the Volta Lake differs from the Volta River.
The former is from the Akosombo Dam upstream, which has become very wide due to the dam construction, while the latter is down the Dam where the river is still in its natural form: lean.
Before the Akosombo Dam project in the early 1960s, areas that have become part of the lake were busy communities and settlements with farms of various crops, including cocoa, timber etc. However, these people have been relocated to Quarters, or VRA Resettlements and there are 52 of them in the Eastern and Volta Regions.
The VRA even says that the displaced people had been paid compensation. The VRA controls the banks along the Volta Lake, the safe distance within which human activities must not occur, but this restriction or buffer does not affect the Lower Volta Basin or Tongu, where the current destructive flooding has taken place.
Now, what we find very irksome is the persuasive information doing the rounds that the VRA had warned Tongus to evacuate their ancestral homes to safe havens. My friend, Mr. Daniel Dugan, wrote in the 23 October, 2023 edition of The Chronicle that the VRA, seeing the imminent danger, made all efforts to inform the people of what could happen. Why did you not tell us the so-called efforts you are talking about?
He added that people blamed the VRA, NADMO, and government as if to say those in authority ‘filled the lake with water.’ Ei, Mr Dugan! He also spoke of Tongus dwelling in the buffer zone of the VRA. You could have produced some documentary evidence.
Mr. Commonsense, you said the last time Ghana had a flooding situation was in 1995, which was nothing near the current situation. So you did not think that anything went wrong on the part of the managers of the dams? What did you make of the simulation exercise that the VRA claimed it had undertaken with ‘stakeholders’ in the Mepe areas, which was in Twi and dubbed ‘da woho so?’ And are they using this exercise as educative enough?
I saw a press release from the VRA on social media announcing the intended spillage, but was that enough? I also heard and read claims that Tongus were ordered to move out. Do people move out just like that, bundling one’s personal effects and going nowhere like Agbezuge in literature in Ewe? At an academic gathering recently, a colleague said that Tongus are encroachers on VRA land. You see the ignorance, and, perhaps, the propaganda?
Tongus have occupied these places along the Lower Volta Basin since time immemorial before the dam construction, hence the name Tongu, to wit ‘By the river,’ which means the people dwell by the river. Which river? Volta. Spillage of the Akosombo Dam has occurred several times, but not up to this devastating level where my dad’s grave was spared by inches.
Others also said that Tongus were compensated to relocate, but they refused. They referenced the 1963 flooding. But they do not know that the 1963 flood was not a dam spillage but natural flooding that occurred as the project was underway and it was due to heavy rains.
As I said, if the VRA paid compensation to Tongus to relocate, my checks have revealed the contrary. I will, therefore, implore the VRA to produce records on the payment of compensation to natives of the following Traditional Areas: Volo, Dorfor, Battor, Mepe, Tefle, Vume, Bakpa, Mafi, Sokpoe, Fievie, and Agave. It is those who were dwelling along the Volta Lake then that have been resettled at Quarters, not Tongus. Show me a single VRA Quarters in Tongu as evidence.
At a point in this catastrophe, the VRA sought to parry the blame onto the Ghana Meteorological Agency for misleading them with inaccurate forecasts after failing woefully to blame us. But in a swift rebuttal, the Agency issued a release in the Daily Graphic, 18 October, 2023, page 42.
The release chastised the VRA Public Relations Officer (PRO) for suggesting in radio interviews that the Agency had misled the VRA. The Agency gave the various dates that it had cautioned the VRA about the looming dangers of delay in spilling the dams gradually. Why did the VRA wait till the level got to the upper limit before spilled the water at a very high speed?
At the 6 a.m. news on Joy FM (99.7) on 23 October, 2023, it was reported that the DCE of Anlo, one Mr. Gemegah intelligently and with deserving prolong applause, had caused the digging of a canal between the sea and the Volta River to remove the sandbank blockade, thus allowing the water to flow into the sea with an eventual recession of the flood in the affected areas in Tongu.
So, suppose this is a solution to the flooding that has led to the displacement of 26,000 people, properties worth millions of Ghana Cedis submerged, cemeteries, latrines, refuse dumps, etc, flooded with the likelihood of an outbreak of diseases, why did the VRA not foresee this?
This calls to question the kind of impact assessment and community engagement done. I heard the VRA PRO say that they had carried out education in the various communities in the Lower Volta Basin. I would have expected him to mention at least four communities where this was done.
The VRA should have carried out massive education on the local FMs in Ewe, not ‘da wo ho so.’ After that, they should have identified high grounds at either Abutia, Ada, etc, and negotiated with the land owners to settle the people temporarily. Then tents must be mounted, water reservoir, generators fixed, mobile toilets in place, health posts constructed, and an evacuation plan in place. Was any of these things done, MrMr Dugan?
You see, we have been badly hurt, and the least we expect from anyone is to rub salt in our malignant sores if you cannot help to ameliorate the pain. How many students from Tongu have benefited from the VRA scholarship since its inception? What about the Cocoa Marketing Board Scholarship?
Do not forget that our fathers had cocoa farms along the banks of the Volta Lake before they were flushed away by the Akosombo Dam project. However, some think our children do not deserve to benefit from the CMB scholarship.
Some Tongu towns are just metres away from the Volta River, but do not have pipe-borne water; they rely on the raw river for drinking; hence bilharzia is their lot. People’s farms are flooded and they are starred in the face by starvation. Some native residents outside the towns are the ones buying sachet water for them to be drinking, but for how long?
It is about time the Volta River was dredged. I am aware of attempts by three companies to dredge the river, but the one that had started work last year was slapped with court injunction, leading to the project being stalled. This is where the authorities need to come in to avert reoccurrence. But my advice to Mr Dugan and his ilk is that they should not rub salt in our malignant sores.
By Ex WOI Bright Segbefia (re.shuffle@yahoo.com)
