Akosombo Dam
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Real Identity: Not Applicable
Appearances (SS): Static in Africa
Powers/Skills: Hydroelectricity
Voiced By: Not Applicable
The Akosombo Hydroelectric Project is a hydroelectric dam conceived as early as 1915 by Albert Ernest Kitson, a geologist, to be located in southeastern Ghana in Akosombo on the Volta River. It was finally proposed in 1949 but there were insufficient funds. After Ghana won independence, the Akosombo Dam proposal was revisited and seen as a way to expand the economy through industrial development. The new purpose of the Akosombo Dam was to provide electricity for Ghana's aluminium industry. Construction of the dam began in 1961 and finished in 1965 but the activity flooded the Volta River Basin and created Lake Volta. The output was 912 Mega Watts, and the dam measured 660 meters wide and 114 meters tall.
The total cost was 130 million pounds. The Ghanaian government paid for most of it while 25% came from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development of the World Bank, the United States of America, and Britain. However, only 20% of electricity was for Ghana while the rest went to the Volta Aluminium Company, an American-owned business. While the dam also created a boom in fishing and tourism activity, there was also a decline in agricultural productivity, increase in water-born illness, and degradation of habitat. The biggest argument against the dam was the forced relocation of 80,000 people and the loss of their original way of life. The villain Osebo stole the map to an Ashanti palace under Lake Volta and planned on blowing up the Akosombo Dam with TNT to reach it. The nearby valley would be destroyed and 1000's of people killed in the process. Anansi the Spider and Static teamed up to save the dam and defeat Osebo.