Long-term adaptation or squeezing water out of stone? Exploring livelihoods in the context of a dam related environmental change in downstream communities of the Volta Basin

Ms. Dzodzi Tsikata, Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, University of Ghana, visiting fellow at the African Studies Centre.

This presentation will focus on how the Tongu Ewe have survived forty years after the construction of the Akosombo Dam over the Volta River. The Tongu Ewe are the largest single group inhabiting an area which was the Volta River’s floodplain. The cycle of seasonal flooding allowed them to participate in economic activities in and outside the Lower Volta thus maximising their opportunities and ensuring food security. All this was to change in 1964 when the Akosombo Dam was closed. It set in motion environmental changes which transformed this section of the Volta river. The Kpong Dam, constructed in 1980 deepened these changes. Fishing and clam picking were affected as well as farming because seasonal flooding no longer fertilised the river’s banks. Waterborne diseases such as bilharzia have become endemic. In response many Tongu people migrated to the Volta Lake to fish and farm. The livelihoods of both the remaining and migrated Tongu have been studied in depth during fieldwork in 1999-2000. This PhD study is rare in that it presents the long term socio-economic as well as environmental effects of dam construction in an African setting.