Human activities along White Volta contributed to flooding – Engineer
Mr Philip Tetteh Padi, the Generation Planning Engineer under the Water Resources Management of the Volta River Authority (VRA) has attributed recent floods in the Upper East and North East Regions to human activities along the White Volta River.
The flood in the two Regions led to the loss of lives, submerging of many farms, bridges, destroying properties including houses and rendering many people homeless, especially in the Upper East Region.
Mr Padi said even though the spillage of the Bagre dam coincided with heavy rains, which compounded the flooding, “What we realised is that, the White Volta is already full and the major tributaries that feed the White Volta are also full forcing most of the rivers to flow back into the communities.”
“Another challenge that we observed is the siltation of the White Volta, a lot of farming and human activities along the River has caused a lot of silting and that has reduced its carrying capacity,” he added.
Mr Padi disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Bolgatanga, the Upper East Regional capital on the side-lines of a joined donation of food items to flood victims in the Region by the VRA and the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo).
He explained that once the carrying capacity of the river was reduced, “with the little amount of rainfall in the river, it spills over, and because of the relatively flat nature of the area, the flood is compounded.”
Mr Padi said with good buffer zone implementation as part of the Pwalugu Multi-Purpose dam project, the river banks would be protected, and the construction of the dam would contain the entire water that comes from the Bugre dam.
He emphasized that flood control was one of the key reasons for the construction of the Pwalugu Multi-Purpose dam project.
According to Mr David Prah, the Public Relations Officer of the Pwalugu Multi-Purpose dam who spoke to the GNA in a separate interview said all the three contractors of the project were on site.
“The first contractors are the Power China, they are the engineers who are going to start with the actual concrete work of the construction. They have started with pre-construction activities.
They have done the access roads, with culverts and other bridges fixed. They have also cleared the area where the workers will be staying,” he said.
Mr Prah said the construction of the dam would permanently stop the annual flooding, which had over the years caused a lot of harm in the two regions.
Source: GNA