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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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The Volta River Authority: a Public Service Company in Ghana
| Panel |
17. States at work: African public services in comparative perspective
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| Paper ID | 587 |
| Author(s) |
Miescher, Stephan F.
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | The paper explores the history of the Volta River Authority in Ghana. The VRA was established in 1961 to build independent Ghana’ largest development project: the hydroelectric dam across the Volta River at Akosombo. Since the project’s completion in 1965, this state company has operated the dam, selling electric power to Ghana’s electricity company, an aluminum smelter, and neighboring countries. In the perception of ordinary Ghanaians, the VRA plays a larger role than merely producing electricity. The VRA is known as a well-run state company that cares for its employees, providing housing, transportation, education, and health care. The VRA is closely connected with the legacy of resettlement and the construction of modern, model townships. In the early 1960s, the VRA resettled 70,000 people into 52 towns in the Volta Basin; some fifteen years later, when the smaller Kpong Dam was built, the VRA created another six towns. Although the administration of these new communities is no longer in the VRA’s portfolio, those living there still look to the VRA for support. The VRA also owns and administers two modern townships erected for the workers and engineers who built the dams: Akosombo and Akuse Township.
After outlining the VRA’s institutional history, the paper focuses on this parastatal’s public perception and day-to-day operation, based on work in the VRA archives and oral research. One case study examines the administration of the Akosombo Township from 1965 to 1982, drawing on the minutes of the Town Management Committee and interviews with former VRA employees. How does the larger vision of establishing a model community relate to the concerns of those in charge of administering the township? A second case study discusses the recollections of men and women who have lived in the resettlement town of Amate along Lake Volta for over forty years. Amate has experienced ecological and economical decline following the construction of the Akosombo Dam. Its inhabitants, whom the VRA initially housed, fed, and only partially compensated, still expect remedies for their dire predicament from the VRA. The paper reveals a tension between VRA’s activities and responsibilities and public expectations. While a reconstruction of administering the Akosombo Township shows a state agency concerned with the welfare of its people, the experience in the resettlement town of Amate is one of state neglect and marginalization. This tension is significant: the VRA is unique among Ghana’s parastatals created during the country’s socialist experiment. It is praised for its success, presented as a sign of (limited) development and progress, and the state’s efficiency, even during the country’s economic crisis of the 1980s. Yet for those who lost due the dams, the VRA represents unfulfilled hopes connected with Ghana’s grandest attempt in social engineering. Part of a larger project, the paper shows the VRA’s crucial role in ordinary Ghanaians’ imaginations and experiences of development, modernity, and nationhood since independence fifty years ago.
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