Akosombo Dam Won't Be Decommissioed

The Chairman of the Technical Committee of the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), Professor Chris Gordon, says there are no concerns over the integrity of the Akosombo Dam.

He made the remark against the backdrop of recent reports suggesting the Akosombo Dam had reached its decommissioning point after over 50 years of use.

Prof. Gordon explained on the Citi Breakfast Show that the structure of the Akosombo Dam gives it a much longer life span.

He specialises in the study of lakes and ecotoxicology.

“Dams have different life spans. The 50-year life span is something that is pushed by the US army corps of engineers which is an average and it depends very much on the type of dam.”
The dams in the US tend to be concrete dams. The Akosombo dam is a rock-fill dam… Akosombo Dam is very very safe. It is 400 kilometres long. It is a shallow dam, not a deep dam so we do not have any problem with the toxic build-up of material at the bottom of the dam,” he explained.

The dam 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 above the ground and a volume of 10,451,000 cubic yards.

The dam has a power-generating capacity of 1,020 megawatts.