The spillage of water from an irrigation dam around Dawhenya near Prampram in the Greater Accra region has displaced many whose homes were flooded as a result of the spilling.
The water, according to some affected residents, is at the window level of their houses.
“The flooding started around 4 am today. It’s never gone down since then. It has affected several houses in my area. The water entered my house. I’ve not been able to go to work today because I had to pack out. If you see the water level, it keeps going up. When I enter my room, the water is at my knee level,” a resident who gave his name as Emmanuel Aryee told Accra-based Citi FM.
Although he noted that the irrigation project sometimes exceeds its banks, he insisted that today’s spillage “is very serious.”
According to the assembly member of one of the affected areas, Richard Mohammed, over 200 homes have been affected by the spillage.
“In my electoral area, over 200 houses have been affected. The water is up to the window level. This is not the first. This year alone, this is the third time,” he said.
Scheme Manager for the Dawhenya Dam project, Samuel Tetteh, has, meanwhile, indicated that the dam has been structured in a way to spill excess water by itself and can therefore not be blamed for the flooding.
He noted that the recent excess rains have worsened the problem.
“The dam is built in such a way that when the water rises, it spills on its own which has been happening over the years. But this morning, what happened is from another stream that flows every two to three years. This stream comes from the Shai Hills area, adding to the dam’s stream and causing the flood, not from the main dam. Yes, the dam is still spilling. Normally depending on the rainfall at the upstream in the Dodowa areas it can flood for about two to three days. We are not responsible for the dam,” he explained.
This comes on the back of the spillage of the Akosombo Dam, which displaced over 30,000 persons who live along the Volta basin.
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