Former Chief Executive Officer of the Volta River Authority (VRA), Ing. Isaac Kirk Koffi, has criticised the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) for failing to adequately implement its Emergency Preparedness Plan during the 2023 Akosombo Dam spillage.
Ing. Koffi, who now chairs the five-member committee investigating the causes of the spillage disaster, made the comments during an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show on Friday, May 9, 2025.
The 2023 spillage, intended as a controlled measure to protect the structural integrity of the dam, ended up displacing thousands and destroying homes and livelihoods across downstream communities.
According to him, NADMO’s response did not reflect lessons from a prior emergency simulation exercise conducted in May 2023.
“I don’t think they did very well in those areas. Because looking at the fact that they did a proper drill in May, I will commend them. But when they did the drill, they realised that should this happen, people would have to move into some safe havens and there should be some facilities there,” he stated.
He revealed that the committee visited some school buildings used as safe havens for displaced persons and found a lack of basic amenities.
“We went to some school buildings, where they moved these people and there were no toilet facilities there. So, having done the drill which was proper, they should have gone further to ensure that there was adequate provision for some of these facilities,” he said.
He continued: “Some logistics, which were supposed to have been provided were not there.”
Additionally, Ing Kirk Koffi called for the strict enforcement of laws to prevent human settlement in designated flood-prone areas, following the Akosombo Dam spillage disaster.
“The president has commenced some work on ensuring that the victims are compensated. But when they are compensated, they should be a flood zone where nobody will go. So that in the future, if there is some level of flooding, we will not run into this problem.
“The authorities have to make sure that people do not move close to the river. In the upstream, there is a law that prevents people from moving close to the river, but it has to be enforced.
“If it is not and people stay there and they find themself in flooding, they will have to be compensated. But the laws must be enforced to ensure that nobody stays there going forward,” he said.
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