Study Team:

Mr. Richard Twum-Barimah
Dr. Daniel Nukpezah
Ms. Edem Aku Kwamoa
Ms Louisa Sawyerr
Prof. Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu
 

1.1 Project Background
Development of rivers for hydropower has conventionally come at a high cost in terms of riverine livelihoods and ecosystems. The Akosombo dam, which was completed in 1965, formed Lake Volta, the largest man-made water storage reservoir in Africa and the world. In addition to power generation, Akosombo provides some degree of flood protection due to its very large storage capacity relative to inflow, and Kpong supplies a small amount of irrigation for rice cultivation Navigation and a robust lake fishery are important additional benefits of the reservoirs.

Dams alter the natural river flows by storing and releasing water in rhythm with the patterns of electricity demand in the service area, rather than the seasonal patterns of rainfall and runoff in the catchment area. The effect on the downstream flow pattern is to reduce the peak flows and increase the base flows, effectively eliminating the dynamic interactions between the river and its floodplains, wetlands, deltas, estuaries, mangrove and beach environments. These are the grea engines of riverine and marine biodiversity and the environmental services that they provide for the myriad of human livelihoods that are dependent upon a fully-functioning river system.

Thus, the Akosombo and Kpong dams have impacted on the livelihoods of the downstream communities and the physical ecosystem processes on which they depend. The results have been:
i) a reduction in floodplain agriculture as natural flooding no longer leaves rich alluvial deposits that improve soil fertility;

ii) explosion in the growth of exotic weeds that have choked off the once lucrative shell fishery,

iii) increase in the snail vectors for the debilitating bilharzias, and

iv) the formation of a permanent sandbar at the estuary. The shellfish have been hit particularly hard before the dam, there was a robust clam fishery downstream of the dam. Due to the vegetation and water quality changes, clam picking, an occupation mainly dominated by women, has almost been eliminated. Many other commercially valuable aquatic species have declined severely or disappeared altogether. These include the blue crab, shrimps, shad and herring.

The overall effect of the loss of agriculture, clam picking, and fishing activities has resulted in increased poverty and led to a dramatic shift in income generating activities.

The long term goal of the “Reoptimisation and Reoperation Study of Akosombo and Kpong Dams Project” is to contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction through improvement of downstream ecosystem functions and livelihoods.

In relation to this project, the Centre for African Wetlands (CAW) was contracted to play a lead role in consulting the downstream communities and report back to the Water Resources
Commission. The specific objectives of the community consultations were to provide a platform to create awareness of the project, manage the expectations of the downstream communities, provide feedback to the project on current downstream issues and seek the consent of the communities for the re-optimization project. This report focuses on the outcomes from consultations held with communities of the Lower Volta between April and August 2013.

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Year: 
2014