The Managing Director of Citi TV/Citi FM, Samuel Attah Mensah, has said that the Volta River Authority (VRA) should not bear sole responsibility for the resettlement of communities affected by the controlled spill of the Akosombo Dam.
Instead, he said, national and local authorities responsible for resettlement should also take ownership of this process.
“I don’t think it (resettlement) is a problem that lies at the doorstep of the VRA,” Mr Atta Mensah said on Citi TV on Thursday, November 2. He added “The VRA’s mandate is to secure and manage the dam, that’s their foremost mandate. It comes with environmental responsibilities, but I always say that the responsibility of enforcing our laws and regulations does not belong to the VRA.”
“The special duty of managing our spaces and settlements is not the duty of the VRA,” he explained. “There are local authorities, there are national institutions whose responsibility it is to manage settlements. As unfortunate as this situation is, I think it gives us a window to now go back and make a strong statement on where people can live and where people cannot live.”
Mr Attah Mensah’s comments align with the VRA’s Emergency Preparedness Plan, which identifies various stakeholders in times of emergency. These stakeholders include the National Security Council, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Energy, and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) at the national level.
At the regional and district levels, the stakeholders are the Eastern Regional Coordinating Council, the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council, the Volta Regional Coordinating Council, and all the Municipal and District Assemblies within the affected areas. Additionally, the chiefs and elders of the affected communities are consulted on the way forward.
All these stakeholders have a role to play in the decision to resettle the communities affected by the spill. It is therefore imperative that a consensus is reached by all before any resettlement is carried out.
The VRA has continued to play a central role in distributing relief items to victims and has also provided support to other governmental agencies on the field assisting with the situation.
They have also provided technical support through water supply restoration, road construction, and power restoration to make life a bit more comfortable for the affected victims.