6 Perish in boat disaster

A pregnant woman and five others drowned when the boat on which they and seven others were travelling capsized on the Volta Lake near Bruben in the Afram Plains North District in the Eastern Region around 6 p.m. last Saturday.

The five others who lost their lives included three women and two girls.

The boat was travelling from Foekope to Bruben.

Information available to the Daily Graphic indicates that all the six bodies have been retrieved from the lake by a combined team of fishermen and divers and deposited at the Donkokrom Presbyterian hospital. 

Incident

The Member of Parliament for Afram Plains North, Ms Betty Krosbi Mensah, who confirmed the incident to the Daily Graphic, said the 13 people on the boat were all from Bruben.

According to her, they had attended a funeral at Foekope and were returning to Bruben when the boat capsized.

“When the boat capsized, some fishermen nearby were able to rescue seven people, but unfortunately the others drowned,’’ she said.

Although investigations were yet to be conducted into the incident, Ms Mensah said she suspected that the accident was caused by tree stumps in the lake.

She decried the numerous incidents of boat accidents on the Volta Lake, describing them as a very serious and worrying situation.

“These accidents happen very often. Sometimes only one person dies from these incidents and the community deals with it,’’ she said.

She appealed to the government to institute measures to curb the rampant boat disasters on the lake.

“There are no emergency services in the area to help deal with such disasters,’’ she said.

The MP also appealed to the government to deal with transport operators who failed to adhere to safety measures regarding marine transport.

Boat disasters.

The Volta Lake is notorious for boat accidents that have led to the loss of hundreds of lives.

Most of these accidents are normally caused by overloading of the boats, the numerous tree stumps in the lake, faulty boats and natural occurences such as storms.

This is the second reported incident of a boat accident that has led to the loss of lives on the lake this year.

Last two weeks, nine people were said to have drowned on the lake when a boat carrying 11 people capsized near Yariga Battor in the Krachi East municipality in the Volta Region.

Over the years, the lake has claimed numerous lives, a situation that has sparked lots of calls for measures to curb the rampant loss of lives on one of the largest man-made lakes in the world.

Below are some of the boat accidents over the years.

*May 10, 2016: Four people, including a family of three, died when a boat carrying 17 people capsized on the lake.

The boat, meant to carry five people, was travelling from Yeji in the Brong Ahafo Region to Makango in the East Gonja District in the Northern Region.

*May 30, 2016: 25 people lost their lives on the lake when a boat from Nantwekope to Yeji capsized.

The boat, carrying 60 people, capsized after hitting a tree stump.

*September 6, 2011: 35 people perished on the lake when their boat travelling from Tapa Abotoase to Kagbanya in the Volta Region capsized halfway through the journey.

The boat was believed to have capsized after it ran into a tree stump and started leaking.

Stiff opposition

In 2007, the government initiated a project to have the tree stumps in the Volta Lake harvested.

It renewed the project in 2010 and signed an agreement with Clark Sustainable Resource Development Limited, a Canadian company, for the second phase of the project.

Since then, tree stumps worth millions of Ghana cedis have been harvested, transformed into lumber and exported to markets in the United States, Belgium, Italy and other European countries.

Although the project is meant to reduce the number of boat disasters caused by the tree stumps, it has met with stiff opposition from the fishermen, boat owners and conservationists.

Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting in April 2014, the Chairman of the National Inland Canoe Fishermen Council, Mr Vincent Kaledzi, said the project would disturb fish production.

“We have been recording incidents of fish dying since the project started,” he said.

The boat owners and the conservationists are of the view that the project will disturb the ecology and natural setting of the lake.

Writer’s email:emma.hawkson@graphic.com.gh