Page 131 - Afrika Must Unite

i i 6 AFRICA MUST UNITE
users over an extended area. The routing of the grid will also
provide outlets for power supplies to many of the larger mines. If
transmission lines could be installed economically, there would
be sufficient electricity to provide power for the whole country,
and even to have some to sell to our neighbours.
This scheme was accepted in principle by the government, not
only because it provided for reasonably economic operation in
the early years by selling power to a smelter, but because it also
provided for the production of a large and reliable source of
electrical power, for many years to come, for G hana’s develop­
ment. The main hydro-electrical project at Akosombo is being
financed by Ghana, Britain, the United States and the Inter­
national Bank, while an agreement has been reached with the
Soviet Union for the design and construction of the power dam
station at Bui.
One of the incidental results of the project will be the
formation of an inland lake, which will cover 3,275 square miles
and will be the largest man-made lake in the world. The lake
will, it is estimated, eventually produce up to 10,000 tons of fresh
fish a year, much of it readily accessible to areas of Ghana too far
from the sea for our sea-water catches to be readily transported
there. The lake fishing industry may well become very im­
portant, and it is proposed to develop this as soon as the lake has
filled, and the fish have had time to multiply. A further advant­
age is that about six hundred square miles of land around the
shores of the new lake will be flooded each season at high water,
and should be suitable for the intensive cultivation of crops such
as rice.
A private company has been formed by some of the world’s
greatest producers of aluminium, to establish the smelter at an
estimated cost of £100 million. This company, known as Valeo
(Volta Aluminium Company Limited), will employ about
1,500 people. Once its pioneer company relief period is over, it
will pay taxes to the Ghana Government, and also pay the Volta
River Authority nearly £2 \ million yearly for electricity.
The construction of the port and harbour at Tem a was an
integral part of the Volta River scheme. Some two thousand
workers were employed to build thousands of housing units,
planned with modern shopping areas in each suburb, a good net­