River · Ghana
Volta
The Volta is the great river of Ghana, born where two smaller Voltas join and famous for the huge lake behind its dam. Near the town of Ada it reaches the Gulf of Guinea.
Picture credit: Laila Seidu (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Tetteh Edem Renosten (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Celestinesucess (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is the Volta?
The river starts here: Where the Black Volta and the White Volta meet in Ghana.
It ends in the Gulf of Guinea at Ada.
Countries on the river: Ghana.
The story behind it
Not everyone measures the Volta the same way, because some people start counting at the source of the Black Volta and others only where the two branches meet, so you will find different lengths in different books. What everybody agrees on is the dam at Akosombo: it holds back so much water that Lake Volta, one of the largest man-made lakes anywhere, flooded whole valleys and gave Ghana most of its electricity. Fishermen paddle wooden canoes between the drowned tree trunks, catching tilapia to sell at the market. Hippos wallow in quiet side arms, crocodiles doze on sandbanks and weaver birds build hanging nests along the shore. During the rainy season the water rises fast; in the dry months it sinks and the shore turns to cracked mud. At Ada the river finally slips past sand spits into the sea.
Questions children ask
How long is the Volta?
The Volta is usually given as about 1 600 km long. The figure is not certain, because it depends on which headstream is counted as the beginning of the river.
Which country does the Volta flow through?
The Volta belongs to Ghana, where it crosses the country from the north to the coast. Its headstreams collect rain in neighbouring lands before they join inside Ghana.
Where does the Volta reach the sea?
The Volta reaches the Gulf of Guinea near the town of Ada. There the water pushes past long sand spits, and fresh and salty water mix in a wide lagoon.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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