Volta Struggles: Lost livelihoods as Volta river dries up

Ghana has many rivers, streams and other water bodies. River Volta remains one of the largest and is perhaps the most important, powering Ghana’s biggest hydroelectric power plant, the Akosombo Dam.

Stretching over a distance of about 1600 kilometers, the river flows from Benin through the Northern, Brong Ahafo, Eastern and Volta Regions.

The river serves the people in many ways. The livelihoods of the young men and women depend on it. They undertake fishing activities and operate commercial boats, transporting people across the vast river. The river also serves as the water source for irrigational projects in the Volta Region including the Aveyime Irrigation Project.

But the stark reality is that the river is drying up and the consequences for the people living along it are shocking… no food, no water, no cash. What they seem to have is a bleak future…

Background
In 1961, the government of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah started the construction of the Akosombo Dam which took four years to complete. Several kilometers stretch of the river was blocked to create the dam. This has resulted in reduced flow of the river downstream, thus encouraging the growth of aquatic weeds in it. In some parts, the aquatic weeds have grown into bushes and even forests.

Head of the Volta River Authority’s Volta Dredging Project Ulysses Ocran Hammond says a 100 kilometer stretch of the river has been affected by this problem. “We are aware of the proliferation of the aquatic weeds within the lower Volta area. When we constructed the dam in Akosombo, the natural flow of the river was reduced. And the entire ecology of the area changes…. Allowing for the weeds to grow,” Mr. Ocran Hammond told Joy News.

The result is reduced catch for the fisherfolks here and transportation on the river has become more dangerous than ever. “It’s really bad because it is affecting fishing business. The fishes will hide under the weed and they will not come out,” Commercial Boat Operator and Fisherman, Edem Manila explained.

“Those times we were kids, we normally come to the river side and somebody call you and dash you a fish. These days it’s scarce before you can even get fish to buy. Because the fishermen say the bushes have become a hiding place for the fish so they don’t get enough,” Vincent Sena, another resident along the river told Joy News.

With fishing now less lucrative, many of young people are being forced out of work. The problem is bigger than just reduced catch and unsafe transportation on the river. Take for example a community called Devime in the Central Tongu District of the Volta region. It used to be a fishing community, but not anymore.

Before the 1960s, a tributary of the Volta River used to run through this community. It was called Agbenorbu meaning: “We are alive because of this water body.” The Agbenorbu Tributary was about 4 miles long and 30 yards wide.

Following the construction of the Akosombo Dam, the area previously occupied by water is now forest with bushes as tall as 2 meters. Residents relied on the water body for their livelihoods and transportation, but not anymore.

Catechist of the local Presbyterian Church at Devime, Lawson Moro who used to be a fisherman and relied on money from that to feed his family lamented about how drastic things have changed for the worse.

“We used to do the casting of nets so we can get fish for sale for our foodstuffs but after the Akosombo Dam, nothing again… So we are in difficulties…,” he explained.

The forest that has taken over the place of the hitherto clean, clear river has now become a haven of snakes, threatening the lives of residents.

“Even last week, a very big python was killed beside the school over there… there are crocodiles and other predators in this which is a danger to the lives of the people here,” a resident told Joy News.

It’s a big struggle for the people here including a trader, Comfort Gakpo. She says the stream was such a nice one that it even served as a tourist attraction and people swam in it. She and her parents used to rely on this water body for drinking, washing and other household chores. Now, they need to walk over very long distances to get access to clean water.

“We had been drinking it, but now we can’t… We have to go to a far place, two kilometers away to fetch water,” Comfort explained.

That’s not all. Education in this community has been badly affected as well. The headmaster of the Devime M/A school, Mohammed Issah explains most parents have abandoned the community in search of greener pastures elsewhere, leaving their children to fend for themselves.

“There are some children in my school whose parents because of hardship, they have left. This makes it difficult for the school children to get something to eat to go to school and they have become a burden on us the teachers,” Mohammed Issah said.

The situation is same in many other communities through which the Volta River used to run. Mafi Aklamador is another former fishing community affected by the problem.

Traditional leader, Gershon Kofi Dzisenu says the river which used to pass through this community was not only a source of fishing. They relied on it to water their crops. But not anymore.

“It was our livelihood, it brought income... when it overflows its banks, it watered the farmlands and gave food to the people in the community. But since the Akosombo Dam was constructed, that was the last flood we have seen,” he explained.

Gershon says the problem is a major contributory factor to deepening poverty in most communities along the Volta River.

“The people in the lower Volta are suffering because we have lost all our natural resources, which is fish. So poverty levels in this part of Tongu have gone high,” he added.

The majority of the population in Mafi Aklamador are now mainly children and the elderly. The young people have abandoned the area to go look for better living elsewhere. Assembly member for the Godfred Oscar is worried about this state of affairs.

“If you comb through the community, the youth mostly are away. This is not good enough,” he said. He wants the bushes cleared with heavy machinery so that they can use the water for irrigation and fish farming.

The Volta River Authority’s Ulysses Ocran Hammond says processes are underway for the award of a contract that will see the harvesting of the weeds in the river. He assures work will begin by the end of the year.

The early settlers built communities on islands along the Volta River in areas where they could have bumper harvests. Siamekope is one of such islands. About one hundred people live here.

There is no electricity, no clean sources of drinking water, no health post, no school, among others. The residents are not happy about government’s inability to provide them with basic amenities here.

Residents seeking health care, children seeking education and women needing household items would have to make the journey over the river without life jackets to get to town. For residents here, without the Volta River, they have no life at all.

They pray that the promised efforts to save the lower Volta from drying further yields positive results, or, their communities may go extinct too. They only hope someone is listening to their concerns…When the last tree dies, the last man dies; so says an old saying. A worse situation obviously faces us if the biggest water body dries up.

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Story by Ghana| Myjoyonline.com | Joseph Opoku Gakpo | Joy News