Akosombo resettlement communities demand faster compensation for lost land
Written on
Representatives of 52 communities displaced by Ghana's Akosombo Hydroelectric Dam have urged the government to speed up compensation and lift the embargo stalling payments for their lost land and livelihoods.
Representatives of the 52 communities affected by the construction of the Akosombo Hydroelectric Dam have urged the government to speed up the compensation process, saying it has taken too long to pay them for the destruction of their communities, livelihoods and cultural heritage.
The demand was highlighted at a stakeholders' meeting between the Volta River Authority (VRA) and the National Association of Resettlement Communities.
The Akosombo Dam, built under Ghana's first President Kwame Nkrumah and completed in 1965, resettled some 52 communities along the Volta River, with the government promising compensation packages. A compensation process that began in 2008 was truncated in 2010 due to identified lapses.
A committee was subsequently set up to look into alleged fraud after GH¢78 million of GH¢138 million was paid following the assessment of 987,000 acres of land out of the 2.4 million acres affected. Engineer Dr Dzabaku Kudiabor Ocansey said stringent measures were being taken to ensure compensation is paid directly to legitimate landowners through the Lands Commission.
Togbe Adom Drayi II, Chairman of the Conference of the National Association of Resettlement Communities, lauded the VRA for increasing the annual grant to the VRA Resettlement Trust Fund from $500,000 to $1 million to support the development of the resettled communities.
He also implored the government to lift the embargo placed on the payment process after the Justice Appau Commission's work. “Over 60 years, our lands have been affected and we think if the government can lift the embargo and streamline the payment it will be good for the resettlement communities,” he said.