The Volta River Authority (VRA), has donated relief items worth over a million Ghana Cedis to thousands of flood victims in all nine affected districts. This is in response to severe flooding caused by the spillage of the Akosombo Dam.

The items include toiletries, bags of rice and sugar, plastic buckets with bowls, mattresses, canned foods, and drinking water, among others.

The Authority is also supplying affected residents with potable water through both sachet water distribution and water tanker services.

On October 13, 2023, a Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of services at the VRA, Ing. Kenneth Arthur, handed over the items to NADMO officials and the Emergency Management Committee (EMC) at the North Tongu District Assembly.

He stated that the Authority will continue to support flood victims during these challenging times across the nine affected districts.

"VRA has already collaborated with NADMO to provide relief items, and we intend to enhance our humanitarian efforts to deliver more relief items.

Essentially, we are targeting all nine districts. We joined NADMO to donate the first batch of items in Central Tongu at Adidome, and now we are here in North Tongu. We will also be reaching out to other districts."

"We have food items such as rice, mackerel, cooking oil, and sanitary items like toilet rolls. We also have water tankers providing potable water to those affected."

Receiving the items, the Deputy Director General of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), Seji Saji, expressed gratitude to the VRA for their timely intervention, stating that the donation would offer some relief to flood victims, particularly those in the safe havens.

"At the safe havens, we are striving to provide necessary facilities through VRA's support to offer some comfort to the affected individuals. It may not be like their homes, but they will certainly find some respite. Nurses are currently attending to the health needs of the victims at the safe havens. We commend VRA for these timely donations."

Meanwhile, the District Chief Executive for North Tongu, Divine Fenu, mentioned that the assembly will continue to collaborate with VRA to ensure that flood victims, particularly the elderly and children, receive the best care at their safe havens.

"For now, we have decided to group the people at one of the centers so that we can serve them more efficiently. We are prioritizing the needs of the elderly and children when it comes to food distribution, recognizing their particular requirements. We focus on the elderly and children before addressing the youth due to their unique needs."

Background

The Volta River Authority initiated the release of excess water from the Akosombo Hydro Dam on September 15, 2023, due to the rising water levels in the dam, resulting in flooding in nine downstream districts.

Engineers at the Authority have reported that the current inflow of water to the reservoir is approximately 400,000 cubic feet per second, while it is releasing approximately 183,000 cubic feet of that volume per second.

Even at this rate, the dam has only about a foot of space left to reach full capacity.

Nonetheless, the Volta River Authority maintains its commitment to striking a delicate balance between safeguarding the integrity of the Akosombo Dam and mitigating the impact of the flood on lives and properties.