The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has emphasized the need for excess water from the Weija Dam to be spilled, saying the exercise will safeguard lives and protect the dam.
[contextly_sidebar id=”vcFQV8HzgyFr1LTHAAnc3cqDsF6H2oFH”]“… at level 47 ft we may have to spill to safeguard the safety of the dam …,” the Communications Manager at the GWCL, Stanley Martey stated on Eyewitness News.
The spillage has been necessitated by Wednesday’s heavy rainfall which has claimed the lives of over 90 people.
The exercise is expected to protect the dam from possible damage from overflows of the heavy rains.
Martey explained the GWCL will however have to slow down a bit and wait for a day or two to find out whether the water levels will keep rising before the spillage begins.
Evacuation
Mr. Martey also appealed to residents to evacuate immediately to pave way for the exercise.
“We plead with the general public, especially those living along the trinities of the waterway to the estuary that they should evacuate immediately because even if we hit the 47 at midnight we may have to start spilling and we cant come back to inform them.”
He was unable to give an estimate of the total number of people living along the waterways saying “we even lose count of the number of people and the number of properties along the way because they keep increasing.”
This is not the first time residents living along the estuary have been asked to evacuate the area.
A same directive was issued in 2014, with the Ghana Meteorological Service warning of a heavy rainfall upstream the Densu River.
Integrity of pipelines
Martey said the Company has deployed some persons to repair damaged pipelines in various parts of the country to avoid the spread of cholera and other diseases.
“We are sampling the water to see if there is any contamination to have the problem rectified”
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By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Photos: Nana Boakye Yiadom