A TRIP UP THE AKOSOMBO DAM (SHOWBIZ, PAGE20, NOV 18, 2010)

By Emmanuel Modey

A GREEN Tata bus pulled up. In it were excited students of Baidoo Bensoe Secondary Technical School, who had come many kilometres away from Agona Ahanta in the Western Region to see the Akosombo Dam.
“We are here to show the students at first-hand what they have learnt about in class”, Mr. Nathaniel Osiban, a Social Studies teacher of the school, said.
Just like these students had come to verify their class lesson, every year, over 35,000 people, including high profile personalities, visit the Akosombo Dam to satisfy their curiosity in various ways.
According to Mr Nii Noi Thompson, an official of the Volta River Authority (VRA), on a busy day, about 50 different groups, families and individuals tour the dam.
/Even when expectations were high that Ghanaians would be glued to their television sets to watch the much hyped football game between Ghana and Australia in the ongoing World Cup tournament, people still found time to visit the dam.
Mr. Issa Bangura, a Sierra Leonean and a first time visitor to Ghana attending a workshop, was happy that at long last he had fulfilled his dream of visiting the Akosombo Dam.
“It's wonderful, it is well constructed and beyond my imagination. Ghana is beautiful and I am definitely going to come back to visit!”
Mr. Bangura had another reason for visiting the dam. As a Senior Superintendent at the Sierra Leon Power Authority, he is naturally interested in anything about electricity generation.
Mr. Bangura has promised to come back with his family. “I love Ghana even though it is expensive.”
Some students from James Madison University in Virginia, USA, were also at the dam. They said they came to Ghana for a course but they also wanted to see interesting places in the country, so their professor arranged for them to see the Akosombo Dam.
Ms Theresa Llewellyn, a student from the University, said she had never heard about the Akosombo Dam, so she was excited to see it.
“It's amazing. I will recommend it to a friend to visit”, she said.
For Ms. Lenise Mazyck, another student, pointing to a little rock from the embankment which showed the effect of the interaction of water with rocks, the tour of the dam had provided her with a concrete proof of something she had studied in her Anthropology class.
“Wow, this is it!”, she exclaimed.
Just before the arrival of the American students, a group of physicians from Hungary, Italy and Germany who are on a medical outreach at the Comboni Centre in Sogakofe, had taken time off to visit the dam.
“We came to see what engineers from my country have built”, the Italian physician said.
The Akosombo dam was built by Italian engineers from the Italian company, Impreglio, with Kaiser engineers from the United States of America as consultants.
Mr. Emmanuel Kwao, a Ghanaian tourist, said he had only seen the dam in pictures and had always desired to see it. He therefore saved some money purposely for this trip.
Unlike the students from Baidoo Bonsoe who were on an educational trip, Mr. Kwao was there for pleasure.
According to Mr Noi Thompson, very important persons also visit the dam. Over a period of about six months from late last year to early this year, about five such visitors came to the dam.
Former President Kaunda of Zambia, the late President Yar'Adua of Nigeria and Mr Liverpool, the President of the Dominican Republic, readily come to mind, according to the source.
For the people living around the dam, the influx of tourists is an opportunity to experience different cultures.
“We see many different people, hear different languages, differences in the type of clothing, and you will not believe that we can tell the difference between a German and a French national”, a resident who didn't want to go on record said.
“The Akosombo Dam is a very large man-made lake, covering an area of 8,502 square kilometres it is the largest man-made lake in the world.” It takes 36 hours to travel round the lake. The dam is made of sand, clay and rocks without cement to bind them. The technical officers at the VRA appropriately call it the rock-filled embankment.
In size, the Akosombo Dam is 2,200 ft long, 440ft high and 1,400ft wide at the base. The dam's six hoses that carry water to turn six eighty-ton turbines to generate electricity are 24 metres in diameter.
The turbines turn 115 times in a minute and releases hydro-power providing a source of electricity for Ghana, Burkina Faso, Benin and Togo.
Even though the Chinese are building a dam they claim will be the largest in the world, for the time being, as the VRA official noted, “The Akosombo dam is the largest, and will continue to be a tourist site for local and international visitors for a long time to come because of its peculiar characteristics.”