The CEO of the Chamber of Aquaculture, Mr. Jacob Adzikah has revealed that his office is collaborating with the Volta River Authority to disseminate information to the farmers and the people living along the stretch of the Volta River on further spillage to avert such tragedy in the future.
He said this when the Chamber of Aquaculture, the fisheries commission, and some of the stakeholders of the aquaculture industry paid a visit to the communities to ascertain the level of mayhem caused by the spillage.
According to him, if information had been disseminated earlier, fish farmers would have prepared, emptied their inland ponds, and saved their cages before the spillage. The VRA could have done better by informing the communities of the volume of the river to be spilled as against previous years.
He mentioned that lack of communication on specific times and the volume of the river spilled has aided this effect on the farmers, however, the chamber is key to collaborating with VRA to share the right and the needed information to enhance awareness creation.
The spillage has wrecked a lot of communities leaving the residents homeless, and jobless. This has caused a huge economic crunch leading to hunger among the farmers.
Although this is not the first spillage from the dam, this year’s spillage is disastrous. A lot of homes, inland ponds, and fishing cages have been destroyed leaving the people in a state of penury.
He assured that the Chamber had a discussion with VRA during the incident and analysed the effect and possible ways to avert such a disaster in the near future. Regarding the outcome of the discussion, he said the chamber raised concerns about the delay in information delivery to the residence.
“We are optimistic VRA will cooperate with us on this matter so the needful will be done to avert such disaster. I am dumbfounded to see my colleague farmers in this situation, this could have been managed if information had reached them earlier. As a key stakeholder, the Chamber would make sure the farmers receive the right information at the right time to mitigate this kind of disaster”, he bemoaned.
