Parliament to summon VRA for failing to dredge Volta estuary for years 

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Works and Housing will next week, summon the Volta River Authority (VRA) to the House to answer questions regarding its failure to dredge the Volta estuary.

Mr Isaac Asiamah, Chairman of the Committee said it had become important for the Authority to appear before Parliament to give reasons for neglecting their responsibility to dredge the Lower Volta Basin, particularly the estuary at Ada for years.

His announcement, made during the Committee's tour of communities in Volta Region's three coastal constituencies of Ketu South, Keta and Anlo suffering the impacts of coastal flooding was in response to concerns raised by Mr Richard Kwami Sefe, Member of Parliament (MP) for Anlo that for about eight years, no dredging of the estuary had taken place.

Mr Sefe suggested for example that, the severe flooding along the eastern estuarine shoreline and the coastline occasioned by the recent controlled spillage of the Akosombo and Kpong dams was a result of several factors including the silting of the Volta River and underscored the need for the VRA to dredge the Volta estuary and the adjoining waters to create a receptacle for containing flood waters.

The Committee's visit on Thursday to communities including Abutiakope, Agavedzi and Atiteti was at the instance of the Speaker of Parliament following several pleas from all three MPs from these areas for government intervention to secure the coastline as the menace was threatening the existence of the affected communities.

Mr Asiamah said the management of VRA, the state utility responsible for the maintenance of the hydropower plant deserved to be hauled before Parliament as the neglect of their responsibilities had caused so much harm.

GNA