VALCO should shut down one more line.

A suggestion has been made for Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) to shut down one of the two remaining pot lines to protect the Akosombo Dam.

Mr Nick Opoku, past president of Ghana Institute of Engineers who was speaking to the Ghana News Agencyt (GNA) on Saturday said if VALCO, presently, is made to operate on one pot line it will prolong its life, because it will be using less power and cannot cause any damage to the dam.

He noted that the Akosombo Dam, which should operate at the minimum water level of 248 feet, has come down so low, to less than about 243, and a lot of damage will be done to the plant and machinery if it is made to over work at a level lower than 237 feet as being discussed in some quarters.

In the final analysis, VALCO cannot draw any power, because the dam will take a long time to recover or never become efficient to operate to produce enough power to run VALCO's plant and this will make Ghana to lose its pride that the dam has created for a long time.

Mr Opoku, a former employee of VALCO expressed serious concern about the Volta River Authority (VRA) for allocating three lines to VALCO to operate in April last year.

He explained that the practice was that, power is normally given out in November of every year after the rains have stopped, by which time VRA is able to determine the water level, and it is out of the increase that VALCO power is allocated.

He said it was therefore, wrong for the VRA to allocate enough power for VALCO to operate in April, looking at the fact that, there was not enough water increase in the Akosombo water level in November because of less rainfall in the previous year.

Crisis management in the case of such an important project like Akosombo dam is dangerous, and VRA should try to avoid it because it is Ghana's economic viability that should always be protected. Similarly, it is also dangerous to politicise issues about the utilisation of the dam.

Mr Opoku suggested to the government to restructure VRA, and place it under the Ministry of Energy, which might have some experts, instead of the present practice of VRA being under the Office of the President.

He explained that the first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah placed VRA directly under him, because he had experts to take decisions on Akosombo at that time, however, this is not the case this time round.

VRA has since December 31,2002, initiated a programme to reduce power supply to VALCO due to the low level of the Akosombo dam, and VALCO has shut down one of its three pot lines.