Rarely, if any, has one project spurred such remarkable economic growth as the Akosombo Dam has done for Ghana.

But behind the economic benefits the country has derived and continues to derive from the Akosombo Dam are broken homes and lives and the loss of millions of hectares of land stretching from the Northern, Brong-Ahafo, Eastern and Volta Regions.

Way back in October 2004 when the Land Valuation Board on behalf of government offered to pay the 52 communities and individual claimants compensation in lieu of their lands, the victims are yet to receive any amount.

Now the chiefs and people of the communities say they have got wind that the Volta River Authority (VRA) recently paid the government the final installment of close to two trillion cedis for onward payment to them.

They disclosed that following the offer and acceptance, the Land Valuation Board and the Ministry of Lands and Forestry have requested for funds from the Ministry of Finance to compensate them, but the Finance Ministry has been dragging its feet for reasons unknown to them.

The 52 communities and their chiefs, according to the Public Agenda, say they do not understand why those who were affected by the construction of the Kpong Dam in 1979 were all paid their compensation, while their compensations have been in arrears since 1962, 45 years now.

According to them, the recent announcement by the government to compensate the land owners of Bui even before work starts amounts to selective justice and only adds to their pain.

"We are therefore appealing to President John Agyekum Kufuor to use his good offices to pay us what is due us before he leaves office", said Nana Otieku Amoani Asare III, Chief of Apaaso and Adontenhene of Kamena-Akwamu Traditional Area of the Eastern Region.

The delay in payment notwithstanding, the chiefs say so far the government has shown a lot of goodwill by valuing the affected lands and computing the final compensation to be paid them; but the government should go beyond the valuation and offer letters and pay them before those of them who have survived the destruction of their lands die.

The chiefs added that since the construction of the dam, thousands of them have died in abject poverty, caused by a project which has become the backbone of the economy. "It is only fair that those of us still alive are paid compensation in our life time", Osman Abdulai, a representative of Makango in the East Gonja District of the Northern Region said.

On his part, Nana Asetena Mensah the Krachiwura and President of the Krachi Traditional Area said, "This issue should be devoid of partisan politics. We are only appealing to the President to consider our plight. He met the problem, but he has the power and wherewithal to solve it before leaving office."

A letter dated September 19, 2005 by the former Minister of Lands and Mineral Resources, Prof. Dominic Fobih to the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning said the state by virtue of Executive Instrument 98 of 1974 acquired a total of 2,176,000 acres of land for the construction of the Akosombo Dam.

"The assessed value of the land which is now submerged is four trillion, three hundred and fifty-two billion cedis", the letter said. Since then the Ministry of Lands and Forestry has made frantic efforts to obtain payment on behalf of the 52 communities to no avail.

In one such letter on November 24, 2004, the ministry specifically demanded the release of over 44 billion cedis to be paid to the Pai Katanka Traditional area, which lost 22,290.87 acres of land. This was after the Land Valuation Board had given Daasebre Ofosu-Yiadom I and his people an offer letter.

According to the schedule of claims, the total area of land submerged in the Makango area for instance is 24,443.43 acres valued at 48.8 billion cedis. The Krachi area lost a total of 788,669.20 acres of land.

Beside the communities, individuals lost land running into millions of acres which the state has agreed to pay. Thus the total amount the Government of Ghana acting on behalf of the State owes the 52 communities and individual claimants is 1.9 trillion cedis which the VRA has paid to the government.



Source: Public Agenda