Let’s find solution to Bagre Dam spillage

Daily updates on the water level of the White Volta in the northern sector of the country have raised hopes that there may not be spillage of the Bagre and the Kompienga dams in Burkina Faso this year.

The yearly flooding in northern Ghana from the spillage of the two dams may not happen this year, after it emerged that the levels of the two dams have dropped since the authorities in Burkina Faso warned of the imminent spillage of excess water from the dams.

This development comes as good news, not only to the people of northern Ghana but the country as a whole. This is because the spillage normally comes with anxiety.

Already, the situation is dire, as the Northern, North East and Upper East regions are already under water due to continuous downpour this year, resulting in the displacement of people, destruction of access roads and complete submergence of farmlands. If the spillage had come on, we would have counted huge losses because of the already bad situation.

But the regret is that every year, a lot of effort and funds are expended, by way of logistics, to take care of victims of the spillage until things normalise, and then we all go to sleep until we are woken up by another threat of the spillage.

And, so, even as we thank God for being merciful to us by withholding the waters, the Daily Graphic thinks it is unacceptable that after three decades of the construction of the Bagre Dam, this ritual of spillage, which often comes with hardships, has become an annual bother to the people there.

From 1999, every year we count at least three or more lives lost to the spillage, with immeasurable damage to and loss of property, yet anytime it happens, our duty bearers visit the affected people, give them mouth-watering promises and continue to Burkina Faso, where they meet their counterparts and hold talks yet the following year the cycle repeats itself.

We see this as unacceptable and all of us must bow our heads in shame.

It is unfortunate that we do not learn from our mistakes and technology still seems to be miles away from us in this 21st century. By now we should be praying for the spillage, so that we could contain all the water to use it to generate more energy and scale up irrigation farming, which has promised to be the way to go in this era of erratic rainfall, making rain-fed agriculture no longer reliable.

By now there should be dams on the water courses. It is a shame that no government, over the last four decades or more, ever saw the need to construct the Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam, which had been on the drawing board.

Thankfully, a sitting President has seen wisdom in the project and has cut the sod for the construction of the dam. Even though work has been at the preparatory and mobilisation stage since 2019, we believe that the mere fact that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has made the move is commendable. For this singular effort, we of the Daily Graphic doff our hat for you, Mr President, but please it will be a great legacy on completion.

This project is one of the flagship initiatives of the government and we are excited that there is a sustained interest in the project.

The project has three major components — power generation, irrigation and flood control. We urge the Volta River Authority and all other agencies and institutions charged with the oversight responsibility to ensure that it sees the light of day.

The Daily Graphic will closely monitor the progress of work on the project to its logical conclusion because it is the panacea for this annual flooding that comes with pain and anguish.