ghana climate change vulnerability and adaptation assessment

effect. In the drier scenario, the waterlevel of lake is low and most often below the level atwhichhydropower productionis impossible. The wetter scenarios pushh lake levels tonear maximal operatingcapacities. In the reference (or no change) scenariotarget releases were met but storage was close toinadequate. Similar sensitivity to climate variability was indicatedd in another hydrological simulation(Leemhuiset al., 2009) and assessments focused onthe Black Volta basin (i.e., Bui dam project, Laube et al.,2008) predict reduced water availability from reduced seasonal rainfall and river flows which will beexacerbated by higher temperatures and evapotranspiration. These factors, apparently not accounted forindam planning and design, could negatively affect the hydropower operations at Bui dam (Biney, 2010).Interestingly, in another20-year modeling scenario, small upstream reservoirss with a steadystate annualincrease of 10 percent were projectedto reduce Lake Volta inflows by about 3 percent at the end of 20 years.This is a small impact on power production relative to present variability in storage volumeor to possiblechanges caused by climate change (Lemoalle and Condappa, 2009) but is nevertheless a reduction in powergeneratingg capacity. A question remains of whether the 10 percent annual increase in upstream reservoirrcapacity isan under-or over-estimateof water development in northern Ghana and ripariancountries in thenext 20 years.Source: Condappa et al. 2009, Lemoalle andCondappa 2009Figure 10.4 Simulation of water storage in Lake Volta undera reference conditionn(No changefrom 1980-2000) and three scenarios of climate change. The black line labeled “Top of inactive (70 km 3 )” indicatesthe storage level at which hydropower generation is impossible at Akosombo dam and thee one labeled “Storage capacity (148km 3 )” is thecapacity of Lake Volta at full pool)Clearly theissue of future hydropower production from Akosombo (and Kpong) dams is complex, notsimplistically related to potential climate change, and is replete with transboundary implications. First, thewater development focus between the two major countries in the Volta Riverr Basin is fundamentallydifferent. Burkina Faso has and is concentrating effort in the Basin on improved use and increased retentionof water for agriculture with demands in that country (as well ass northern Ghana) expectedto increaseGHANA CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY ANDADAPTATIONASSESSMENT169