Mepe
In October 2023, the community of Mepe on the banks of the Volta was hit by a severe, day-lasting flood.The Akosombo Dam Spillage Flood, as it came to be named afterwards, inundated most parts of Mepe. It affected built structures and adjacent areas alike and has left traces in the residents‘ minds. Public life came to a standstill, schools were closed down and high school institutions served as temporary havens for flood refugees. Health issues ensued, food and freshwater supply was critical. Help was organized from within the community, and despite the catastrophic dimension of the flood, there were no casualties.
The primary reason for the flood was the deliberate, unsatisfactorily communicated opening of spilling gates upstream of Mepe; abundant rainfalls had filled the reservoirs behind Akosombo and other dams to their brims.
What happened? Course of the events
Eye-witnesses report what happened. How the Volta river floods Mepe with a vigour that none of them had seen before. How they tried saving their belonings, abandoned their houses, fought with the water masses. How they coped with the situation in the crucial hours.
Interview with Amos Ahorsu
It was the 11th of October, when it crossed the main road. We realized it crossing and just in 10 minutes it reaches here.
The altitude was very, very high to the standard, I was on a knee-level trying to save some of my properties.
When we realized, the buildings just started to come down. Even my friend was here to assist me, so that we could disconnect the powers, the electric power.
-Amos Ahorsu
If you want to move from our school, Kizito, to the road side you have to join the boats. The same applies to the eastern side, that also got flooded, before you get to town, you have to join the boats, and the water surrounded the whole of this place
-Mavis, Head of St. Kizito Senior Technical High School
After the flood: Impacts and affectedness
The aftermath of the flood began with an inspection of the damages and a counting of losses: houses had been uninhabitable for weeks, livelihoods were destroyed, health was affected, help reached the people, or it did not. Everyday life was no longer the same, it left deep traces in the built as well as in the individuals‘ and social structures.
Everyday life
Damages and destruction
Health and well-being
„Presently, we‘re struggling with toilet facility issues. We had always been hoping and appealing to NGOs and the government to come to our aid, beause when the students come to school now, it is always difficult. They defecate in the bush around, which is no good for our health, and that can bring about any disease outbreak“
-Mavis A. Dzikunu, St. Kizito Senior Technical High School
How to deal? Coping and adaptation strategies
The flood cannot be undone, but there are lessons to be learned.
Community members found ways to cope, and new forms of adaptation became essential.
Some coping strategies emerged during the disaster; others developed afterwards through improved disaster management and stronger flood protection measures.
Help and support
Criticsm
Solidarity
Coping strategies / Sites of Memory
Why, and where to? Disaster reasons and reasoning
Looking ahead means looking back in order to identify the causes for what the community had to endure. While the flood seemed to be a natural phenomenon, the reasons for the catastrophe were also man-made: human failure and unpreparedness are co-responsible for the disaster‘s dimension. Naming the reasons for the flood strongly depends on the witnesses‘ inidividual perpective.
Looking ahead includes a thorough and honest analysis – was it just ‚nature‘, and what role does climate change play? How man-made is climate change?. It comprises the formulation of what must be done to prevent, or at least mitigate, similar events in the future.
Coping strategies / Sites of Memory
Climate catastrophe
Engineering
Anxiety
Livelihoods