A Professor at the University of Ghana Ransford Gyampo has criticised the Volta River Authority (VRA) for the flood caused by the Akosombo Dam spillage.
He accused the VRA of poorly implementing the plan to spill.
Speaking on the Key Points on TV3 on Saturday, October 21, he said “A couple of weeks ago, I met a group of students and I was advising them to take their education very seriously and to ensure that whatever we are teaching them they imbibe and then apply, that they shouldn’t be cutting corners trying to get their degrees.
“Otherwise, then, their degrees will become questionable. Also if their degrees are questionable, tomorrow if they are reposed with important positions of trust they will disappoint us.
“So I gave an example that if you want to be a pilot there are requirements that you have to fulfill. if you don’t fulfill those requirements and you are cutting corners you will be given a plane to fly and anytime we go and sit in a plane we have a lot of confidence and trust in the pilot like the way we have confidence in God. We put our lives in the hands of the pilot. If the pilot were to be somebody who had cut corners in his bid to acquire his education then he would geoperdise human lives.
“I said that two weeks ago to some students and it appears it playing out with this particular VRA matter.
“It appears that some people’s education and certificate are questionable and that is why we are getting here. It is not about bagging all the degrees, all the Masters and all the PhDs, it is also about how you bagged them and how you are going to make sure that they are applicable to the problems that you are supposed to be solving.
“It also appears to me that there has been poor implementation of the project, that there were places people were not supposed to settle, who had the duty to ensure that these people never settled there in the first place? Per the project, this particular matter had to be implemented such that you will go quickly to tell the people who are located so close to the banks of the river that it could get full and when we decide to spill this is likely to be implemented.”
North Tongu Member of Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has said he is in talks with lawyers for a possible lawsuit against the VRA for the disaster.
He accused the VRA of creating a “man-made” disaster as if they were embarking on a ‘mass murder’.
“We’re in talks with our lawyers,” he said on the Hot Edition on 3FM Friday, October 20.
He further said it was only a miracle that no life was lost in the flood and further acknowledged the work done by the youth of the affected communities in helping the rescue mission.
Meanwhile, the Minority in Parliament has demanded a thorough investigation into the flood.
They are accusing the VRA of causing the ‘man-made’ disaster. He further expressed disappointment at the way the VRA was going about its relief support to the people.
The Minority Leader Dr Cassiel Ato Forson told journalists after leading the leadership of the Minority to inspect the affected communities that have been affected on Friday, October 20 that “We have Saglemi sitting idle, the government must ensure that they house the people of these 11 affected communities for this constituency properly. We are suggesting that as a matter of urgency, they can relate them temporarily to the Saglemi Housing project.”
The Ajuamko Enyan Essiam lawmaker added “we are disappointed in the Volta River Authority, we believe that their conduct has not been good enough, they have not engaged communities and we in the NDC particularly in Parliament, will investigate this matter.
“We urge the Energy Committee from our side to start the process of instituting a probe into this matter immediately. Aside from this, we also believe that the VRA has not been proactive, after causing this man-made disaster their donations are coming in in trickles. A strong institution such as VRA should have done better what they are doing, we urge them to also start.”
Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the VRA, Mr Emmanuel Antwi-Darkwa said that the lake was experiencing inflows more than expected hence the spillage was going to continue.
“We are on phase II [of the spillage] right now and it is a cycle. It is normal at this time of the year for us to experience inflows. The difference is that we are getting more than expected and to safeguard this dam means that we have to spill water, that is the standard operation for any hydro dam but the inflows that we are seeing now are in excess.
“Definitely, as the cycle goes through this will recede so we are hoping it will recede in the next time,” he told journalists on Thursday, October 12.
“The spilling may continue even though we are anticipating that the levels may drop down to phase 1, which was started on September 15 but of course, we did not have much excess as we are seeing now, this is an emergency as we have seen from the beginning.
“Whether dredging or no dredging it is an emergency. The volume of water that is coming into the lake right now which we have to throw out, it means that we need to evacuate people from wherever they are to ensure they are safe until the inflows recede,” he added.
The VRA was accused of neglecting its responsibilities in the Lower Volta Basin hence the huge impact of flood caused by spillage from the Akosombo and Kpong Dams on communities.