Here are the largest man-made lakes found in Africa [Photos]

Lake Volta, Ghana

The Lake Volta is formed by the construction of the Akosombo Dam, also known as the Volta Dam – Ghana’s hydroelectric dam, and is the largest artificial reservoir in the world in terms of surface area.

The Lake which was started in 1961, was completed in 1965, just south of the Ajena community. This created a lake extending upstream from the Akosombo Dam to Yapei, a town beyond the former confluence of the Black Volta and White Volta rivers.

The lake’s creation involved the inundation of 15,000 homes and of 740 villages and the resettlement of 78,000 people. The lake is navigable and provides a cheap route linking Ghana’s northern savanna with the coast.

With a storage capacity of 124,000,000 acre-feet (153,000,000,000 cubic m) of water, Lake Volta makes it to the list of one of the largest man-made lakes in the world. It is about 250 miles (400 km) long and covers 3,283 square miles (8,502 square km), or 3.6 percent of Ghana’s area.

It also is a major fishing ground and provides irrigation water for farmland in the dry Accra Plains lying immediately below the dam site.