Officials from VRA, NaDMO and other agencies in a pose after the opening ceremony
THE VOLTA RIVER Authority (VRA), in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Organization (NaDMO), will this week, carry out a large-scale simulation exercise – in preparation for the unlikely event of spillage from the Akosombo Dam and the Kpong Hydropower Dam.
The exercise, dubbed: “Da Wo Ho So 2023”, to wit “Be vigilant”, forms part of the Authority’s emergency preparedness plan (EPP), and will come off from Wednesday, May 10 to Friday, May 12, 2023 in three three potentially affected districts namely: Asuogyaman in the Eastern Region, Ada East in the Greater Accra Region and North Tongu in the Volta Region.
The exercise is aimed at assessing and improving the VRA’s and other stakeholders’ emergency response plans, procedures, and capabilities while testing their readiness to deal with emergencies that cause the release of large quantities of water from the Akosombo and Kpong Dams.
Joining in the exercise will be officers from the Ghana Fire Service, Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Navy, the Ghana National Ambulance Service, and the Ghana Armed Forces, among others. Also part of the exercise will be representatives from the North Dakota National Guard, as observers.
Kwaku Wiafe, Director at the Engineering Services Department of VRA, speaking at the opening ceremony in Accra noted that: “To ensure dam safety, we have instrumentation on the dams to measure physical and hydrological data daily, weekly, and monthly. A Dam Safety Unit monitors this information to ensure the dam is operated safely. VRA also has an Early Warning System which monitors the inflows into the Akosombo reservoir so that we can know in advance if there will be a potential spill and advise the necessary stakeholders ahead of time.”
“VRA fully understands our responsibility to ensure that the Akosombo and Kpong Dams are safe. Even though the events we are preparing for have a very low likelihood, we must still be ready for a flood emergency”, he stressed.
The Deputy Chief Executive, Engineering and Operations at VRA, Ing. Edward Obeng-Kenzo, revealed that “in the case of excessive spillage or the unlikely situation of a dam break, it is estimated that over 300,000 people will be potentially affected”.
The EPP is therefore designed to provide early warning of any potential disaster and manage the response to minimise effects on life and property in communities downstream of the two dams.
A significant benefit of this exercise, he underscored, is that the lessons learnt would help manage other flood emergencies, as we frequently have in northern Ghana and some of our cities, such as Accra.
Overview of Exercise
Seji Saji, Deputy Director-General, Technical, NADMO, in outlining the overview of the exercise said the early warning systems would have various levels of activation related to the degree of spillage in an area.
The exercise in Ada will see a total evacuation simulated exercise as well as a search and rescue operation. There will be ambulance services on the river trying to save the lives of persons who may fall victims of the situation.
In Asuogyaman, the objective will be to test the efficiency of the early warning system as well as the search and rescue capabilities of the team.
In North Tongu, the team will be testing voluntary evacuation and forced evacuation.
“There are already designated safe havens for all these nine districts”, Seji Saji announced. “The notification to the communities will come with the warning and the exact location of the safe haven. After some time, the team would move into the community and evacuate those who’d fail to evacuate voluntarily.”
The exercise is expected to take place in the selected communities simultaneously.
BY Nii Adjei Mensahfio