Digenetic Trematodes of Fish from the Volta River Drainage System in Ghana prior to the Construction of the Volta Dam at Akosombo in May 1964

Abstract

The catchment area of the Volta River covers an area of 153,000 sq. miles of which approximately 64,000 sq. miles is located in Ghana. This forms about 70 per cent of the total area of the country. Most of the catchment area in Ghana consists of savanna; including the Guinea savanna of the Northern region, the derived savanna of Northern Ashanti adjacent to it on the south, and the coastal savanna which is separated from the interior savanna by a broad belt of tropical forest. With the exception of some of the headwaters of the Afram the tropical forest is drained by smaller rivers including the Tano, Ankobra and the Pra which are not part of the Volta Basin. Most of the Volta catchment area lies in an area with a well defined wet season occurring between June and September.In May 1964, the huge dam across the Volta River at Akosombo was completed and the dendritic Volta Lake began to form. It reached its full size after the rainy season of 1968 when it covered an area of approximately 3,275 sq. miles.