The construction of reservoirs and dams has produced some incredible waterways that are just as breathtaking as their natural counterparts.
Entire forests were submerged to create the world’s largest artificial reservoir based on surface area, located in Africa.
Lake Volta, contained behind the Akosombo Dam, covers 3.6% of Ghana and has a surface area of 3,283 square miles (8,502 square kilometres). It is also the third-largest artificial lake in the world by volume.
It has a storage capacity of 153 billion cubic metres and is about 250 miles long.
The hydroelectric dam generates a substantial amount of Ghana’s electricity, producing 912 megawatts of electricity, as well as for export to Togo, Benin, and other nearby countries to earn foreign exchange.
Lake Volta extends from Akosombo in the south to the northern part of the country, with its northernmost point close to the town of Yapei.
Akosombo Dam holds back both the White Volta River and the Black Volta River, which formerly converged where the middle of the reservoir lies, to form the single Volta River. The present Volta River flows from the outlets of the dam’s powerhouse and spillways to the Atlantic Ocean in southern Ghana.
The idea for the dam was originally conceived by the geologist Albert Ernest Kitson during the British colonial period in 1915, to exploit the river’s energy for smelting locally-sourced bauxite which is used to make aluminium. It later regained prominence at the end of the colonial era after World War Two, when Kwame Nkrumah became president of the Gold Coast Colony – a British Crown colony from 1821 until its independence in 1957 as Ghana – and began striving for modernisation of the land.
A commission of British and local governments concluded that over 60,000 people would have to be relocated, but the lake would boost opportunities for fishing, thus helping to feed the region’s population.
The project began in 1961 and was completed in four years.
In the end, 15,000 homes in 740 villages were flooded, necessitating the resettlement of 78,000 people. Several forests were also submerged.
There were concerns that water-related illnesses, including malaria, trypanosomiasis and schistosomiasis, would spread. The forming of the lake disrupted traditional fishing and farming practices in the region and government-led modernisation did not succeed. People had to adapt to the new circumstances themselves.
That being said, regional food production intensified in the decades following the construction of Akosombo Dam, and the lake also opened a large navigable pathway to the north of the country and provided new opportunities for development of tourism which is gaining in prominence. It provides a cheap route linking Ghana’s northern savanna with the coast.
Yet, water level has been decreasing recently because of global warming, reducing power generation.
The main islands within the lake are Dodi, Dwarf and Kporve. Digya National Park lies on part of the lake’s western shore. The former attracts tourist cruises.
Lake Volta is also important for transportation, providing a waterway for both ferries and cargo. Since the huge lake lies in a tropical area, the water remains warm year-round naturally.
Recent developments include a large-scale enterprise to harvest submerged timber from flooded forests under the lake. The project harvests high-value tropical hardwood without requiring additional logging or destruction of existing forest and, according to Wayne Dunne, “could generate the largest source of environmentally sustainable natural tropical hardwood in the world”.