Ghana be fun...

Akosombo Dam

It turns out there are a fair few things to see and do when you head outside of Accra, as long as you are prepared to sit in the traffic or dodgy and weave around the jams in order to get out of the city.

The weather this weekend has been gloriously sunny, and the sun has been blisteringly hot and intense, a smattering of white fluffy clouds have kept the blue sky looking pretty and the sun from burning.  In fact a perfect weekend to head out to the Eastern Region and along to the Akosombo Dam and the Volta.  This dam has been a long time in coming, originally conceived in 1915 as part of a huge Hydro-electric project, plans weren’t drawn up until the 1940s and building was completed in 1961, creating both the dam and Lake Volta, the world’s largest man-made lake.  It also makes this year the 50^th Anniversary of the Volta River Authority and of the dam.  

 

All along the lake are small rural fishing communities.  The fisherman still go out in hand paddled canoes, they still have fishing nets hung out along the rocks to dry, they still go down to the river to wash and to wash their clothes. They are completely surrounded by lush looking green hills.  It really does feel like stepping back in time, and I completely imagine a biblical fishing village to look something like this.  You can’t even see any of this from the road.  Or see this from the road. It feels and sounds totally and secluded and peaceful once you are on the lake.  It was so silent and the water was so still and calm. 

Apparently the dam hasn’t been such a huge success for those living along the sides of it.  It might have appeared clam and idyllic and hydroelectricity might be good for the country as a whole, but the short term effects of the dam have been an increase in water bourn disease, such as river blindness and malaria.  This has led to aquatic degradation causing the fishing to be damaged.  There is no longer the quantity or the quality to be caught.  The weight of the water in the lake has caused crustal movement that has lead to coastal erosion; the land that was flooded to create the lake was more fertile than the rocky outcrops left. Meaning that all the communities that were relocated lost part of their livelihood.  Maybe there is more to this than I actually understand.  I wonder if this, along with the "sand winning" is causing some of the problems in Elmina too- or whether they are too far along the coast to feel the effects?

 

It wasn’t just the lake that was clam and serene.  The hotel was also unusually peaceful (despite the cockerel who insisted on screeching all night).  It really was a great place to sit and relax.  The restaurant served nice food, and the location picture perfect, on a deck out over the lake.  You could watch the fish swimming underneath if you looked down through the slats, or on the decking you could watch the lizards playing chase.  An activity I found fascinating.  They very rarely seemed to sit still, lunging at and grabbing each other. 

On the way back into Accra there was a small craft market, with a lady who made the funniest deals.   The conversation was something along these lines…

-       “How much?”

-       “45GHs, I made it all myself, you can have it in all these colors”

-       Nod “OK”

-       “OK. 40GHs.”

-       “Yep- sounds good.”

-       “You can have it for 35GHs”

Hang on a second… isn’t it the job of the person buying the goods who is supposed to knock the price down?  But it carried on, the more things that were picked up the cheaper the prices came, and then upon paying a few more things were thrown in for free.  So that is a few Christmas presents bought, another craft fair coming up before the vacation and I can’t wait to go back to Akosombo.  There is still a river cruise I want to do.