Kpong Hydro Dam undergoes first rehabilitation after 40 years

The KPONG Power Generating Station (KGS) in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality in the Eastern Region is to undergo the first rehabilitation 40 years after its construction, beginning 2026.

The project which will take 18 months, and is estimated to cost €62 million, is being funded by the European Investment Bank.

The dam is a hydropower plant located 24 kilometres downstream of the Akosombo Generating Station (AGS). It operates in tandem with AGS balancing Akosombo’s discharge, with its head pond for optimised power production.

It has total capacity of 160 MW (12 per cent of Ghana’s hydroelectric output) with 40 MW generating units.

It consists of a 258-metre concrete spillway, 6.2 kilometres of earth fall dykes and has a storage capacity of 15 million m3 and a spillway with 15 radial gates and a design capacity of 20, 670 m3 which was upgraded in 2019.    

The project will be in three components, involving rehabilitation of the eastern and western dykes of the dam, replacement of the 15 spillway gates and construction work on 10 kilometres Akuse Junction to Akuse road. 

Communities

Executors of the project, the Volta River Authority (VRA), has called for the cooperation of communities in the catchment area of the dam during the period of the rehabilitation work.

The communities to be affected in the rehabilitation work include Akuse and Amedeka in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality, Natriku in the Shai-Osudoku District in the Greater Accra Region and Fodzoku and Torgorme in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region.

At a stakeholders’ engagement with the communities near the dam on draft environmental impact assessment (EIA) report last Friday at Akuse, the Manager, Public Health Section, Environmental and Sustainable Development of VRA, Seyram Dzefi, who led the VRA team with the presentation, said the Kpong Dam plays a crucial role in controlling water levels downstream of Akosombo, ensuring efficient hydropower production while supporting irrigation. 

Key rehabilitation works

Giving the details of the rehabilitation work on the dam, Mr Dzefi said there was going to be rockfill dyke repairs which would improve slopes, proper rock grading and update instrumentation for a 50-year operational lifespan. The project would also take care of spillway gate rehabilitation and overhaul of 15 gates to ensure functionality for the next 25 years.

Mr. Dzefi stated that VRA had gone through all the necessary legal requirements for the project, including environmental impact assessment, stakeholder engagement plan, health impact assessment, labour and work condition management plan, community survey, livelihood impact assessment, gender impact assessment, climate risk vulnerability and environmental media quality.

He stated that even though the project will start in 2026, preliminary work of carting materials to site and all other necessary preparations would take place next year and pleaded with the communities to cooperate with the VRA.

He said VRA had submitted the needed reports on the environmental assessment to the appropriate institutions including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Lower Manya Krobo, North Tongu and Shai-Osudoku assemblies, traditional authorities at Akuse, Natriku, Fodzoku and Torgorme and above all published the document at VRA’s website for public consumption.

Positive impact

Mr Dzefi said the rehabilitation project would bring positive impacts on the communities, including increase in employment opportunities, stabilisation of electricity, the dam’s longevity, reduction of exposure to flooding and production of low carbon electricity.

The Director, Engineering Services Department of VRA, Kwaku Wiafe, assured the communities that mitigation measures would be put in place including education and awareness creation, and adherence to health and safety plan for the period of the rehabilitation work, stressing “the project would not affect your economic activities in your respective areas.”

Mr Wiafe hoped the stakeholder engagement held offered all interested parties and communities the opportunity to become actively involved in the project, by assisting to identify issues of concern and possible suggestions/solutions for successful implementation of the project.

“Going forward, VRA will ensure all enhancement and mitigation measures to address all impacts are identified,” he assured.

The Manklalo of Torgorme, Torgbi Gidi IV who spoke on behalf of the communities and stakeholders stressed the need for VRA to ensure there were no negative impacts on the communities near the Kpong Dam when the project started, adding “we suffered during the construction of the dam but no one was compensated.”