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The Owabi dam overflows its banks any time it rains heavily
The Owabi dam overflows its banks any time it rains heavily

Owabi dam shutdown imminent

Officials at the Owabi Dam, one of the main sources of water for millions of people in Kumasi and its environs, have indicated that a complete shutdown looms due to the level of pollution of the water source.

"We are now using the upper intake point to collect water. As the silt inches up, it means that there would be no flow of raw water for processing and the water would overflow. Eventually the plant has to be shut down,” the Daily Graphic was told on a recent visit to the dam site.

The Owabi Dam was built in 1926 with a design depth of 22.5-feet but this has been narrowed and reduced to 6.5-feet due to human activities such as the disposal of solid waste into the dam and the washing of toxic chemicals from farming activities along the banks into the dam.

Situated in a virgin forest in the Atwima Nwabiagya North District in the Ashanti Region, the dam area has seen massive encroachment and the removal of its green forest protection, exposing it to environmental hazards.

According to the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) Production Manager for the Ashanti Region, Mr Charles Tulasi, for the Owabi water treatment plant catchment area, the main encroachment activities have included real estate development, sand winning and the logging of trees among other human activities since 1998, which were impacting very negatively on the water plant and thus “increasing our production cost.”

Surrounding communities such as Esaase, Ohwim and Bokwankye have also borne the brunt of floods that have inundated the area anytime it has rained due to the level of siltation brought about by the pollutants which have found their way into the Owabi River and dam.

On what was being done to stop the encroachment and pollution of the Owabi Dam, Mr Tulasi said “GWCL in collaboration with the Water Resources Commission (WRC), RCC, National Security Coordinator, police and chiefs have been educating the people living close to the catchment areas, arresting people illegally encroaching and engaging in the demolition of houses built in the catchment” among other steps taken.

“We strongly recommend that these two catchment areas should be declared as security zone with the camping of the military in the area. This will eliminate or minimise encroachment activities,” he said, speaking to the Daily Graphic about both the Owabi and Barekese dams that have been seriously polluted, earlier in the year.

Plastic waste along the bank of the dam

Pollutants

When the Daily Graphic news team visited the treatment plant, it found that the intake point of the raw water for treatment was choked, while the river overflowed the dam.

Found in the water were pollutants, including plastics, fine sand, clay and other materials which were deposited in a channel and thus made it easy for the river to overflow the dam area.

The water overflowing the walls of the dam then head straight to the treatment plant’s laboratory, which is close by, which officials said if nothing was done immediately about, would result in the laboratory being submerged in water and all its contents destroyed, while the building itself risked collapsing.

Envisaged impact

At present, about 20 per cent of the water supplied to the Kumasi metropolis comes from the Owabi Dam reservoir, mainly serving the northern part of Kumasi, including areas like Kwadaso, Asuoyeboah, Abuakwa, Nkawie, Akropong, Koforidua and neighbouring towns.

The Owabi Water Supply System is a three million gallons per day (3mgd) conventional treatment plant with a daily average production of 2.4 mgd.

A shutdown of the plant, will, therefore mean that millions of residents in the Ashanti Region will not have potable water.

Meanwhile, the Odikro of the Owabi community, Nana Kwame Awuah, has expressed worry over the flooding of their farms anytime heavy rains were recorded and has made an appeal to the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources to, as a matter of urgency, commission a dredging company to save the community and its environs.

“If they do not dredge, what would happen is that our farm produce would continue to be destroyed by the flood and the water system and other installations which are already threatened would have to shut down,” he said.

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