According to Freda Prempeh, Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, the Akosombo Dam spill victims should share some of the blame for the destruction.
She claimed that despite repeated warnings from the Volta River Authority, residents of the affected communities resisted being evacuated.
Freda Prempeh said during a forum held in Accra by Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) and its clients that, “The Akosombo dam spillage, even though Volta River Authority, National Disaster Management Organisation, the Water Resources Commission, came together to educate the people in the community and did simulation exercises with them even at Mepe, yet, they refused to leave. They did not want to be evacuated, and they stayed there till the end when we started spilling.”
“Unfortunately, look at what is happening, and the government has to spend millions of money on relief items, and education. The water in the whole area is contaminated and the Ghana Water Company and Water Resources Commission will have to spend millions of money to treat the water before we can pass it through our pipes. So a stitch in time saves nine. Sometimes it’s difficult to accept the situation, but we will plead with all of you to accept it as it is. Water is life and is essential to everything”.
Sanitation Minister, Freda Prempeh blames the devastating impact of the Akosombo Dam Spillage on the refusal of residents to evacuate prior to the spilling of excess water from the dam. #CitiNewsroom pic.twitter.com/T4YSijNo6r
— CITI FM 97.3 (@Citi973) October 23, 2023
Over 20,000 people in the Volta and Greater Accra regions have been displaced as a result of the dam spillage’s devastating effects.
Homes and farms along the banks of the River Volta have been particularly badly affected by the spillage’s effects.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo stated that helping the affected people is part of the government’s mandate while visiting some flood victims in Mepe, in the Volta Region.
President Akufo-Addo stated in his address to the Chief and people of Mepe that he is obligated to assist the populace and that it is not about votes or political allegiances.
