Akosombo Dam spillage a major failure; parliamentary probe necessary – Kofi Bentil

Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, after a careful evaluation of the effect of the Akosombo Dam spillage, has classified it as a major failure on the part of the Volta River Authority, citinewsroom.com reports.

Kofi Bentil, contributing to a panel discussion on the Africa Leadership Initiative West Africa (ALIWA) on Thursday, January 25, highlighted that it is imperative to conduct a thorough examination of the incident to avoid the same occurrences in the future.

The Vice president of IMANI Africa further said that taking into consideration the evidence of a tragic failure that led to the flooding and the displacement of thousands of residents, the Akosombo Dam Spillage issue cannot be dissolved.

He emphasised that a failure of this calibre does not happen overnight but evolves over several days.

Kofi Bntil hinted that both the Meteorological Service and the Volta River Authority (VRA) had warning systems in place, which raises concerns about the occurrence of the spillage despite these safety measures.

Kofi Bentil stated, “The dam does not fail overnight, it fails over many days, the Meteo service was working, and they gave the warnings, VRA itself has better systems than the Meteo systems, by which it can check. So if a dam fails over many days and there are significant warning systems, and there are multiple institutions, and it’s a Volta River Authority and in law, that [Authority] means a lot.”

He proposed an extensive investigation as a vital tool for the understanding of the lapses in the system.

“We need to ask questions as to why this happened and get to the bottom of why it happened because if the best of our best has failed then what is going on with the rest?” he questioned.

Kofi Bentil, underscoring the tenacity of the situation, called on parliament to conduct an extensive probe into the Dam Spillage.

He highlighted that the flooding was not a result of natural disaster but of conscious efforts, where someone launched the release of water, irrespective of the awareness of people downstream, hence calling for an enquiry to puzzle out what happened.

“This flooding was not natural, somebody pressed the bottom, and opened floodgates, knowing there were people downstream and flooded the place. Yes, you are saying [it was done] to save the dam but how did we get to that point, if the dam broke there would be worse problems, but should we ever get to that point where we have to choose between saving a dam and risking human lives? We need to ask questions and I think Parliament should get into this.” Kofi Bentil stated

“Building Resilience: A Socio-Economic Response to Natural Disasters,” was the theme for the discussion.

RAD/OGB

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