Govt to desilt Volta river this year

Government has planned to desilt the Volta River this year so as to help free flow of water spilled from the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso.

The move, according to President Akufo-Addo will help to reduce the associated threats that the spillage of the Bagre Dam poses to the lives and property along the areas where the Black and White Volta river passes.

President Akufo-Addo announced this when presented the 2019 State of the Nation Address in Parliament on Thursday, February 21, 2019.

In the last 10 years, residents along the Black and White Volta river in northern Ghana have been inflicted with an annual ritual of flooding anytime the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso is spilled.

The volume of water from the dam has often caused damage to the towns and villages that lie along its course.

Many lives and property have been lost as a result of the Bagre Dam spillage.

In 2018, for instance, 11 lives were lost in separate communities in northern Ghana, following the spillage of the dam while several farms were swept away by flood waters.