Kete Krachi Timber Recovery begins underwater tree salvage

There was joy and contentment among staff and management of the Kete Krachi Timber Recovery (KKTR) at Sedorm-Yiti in the Asuogyaman District of the Eastern Region last week, when a diver trained by the company, Mr Ebenezer Dornor Abayateiye, cut the first wood under the Lake Volta as part of the diver-based timber salvage programme of the KKTR.

The diver (logger), Mr Dornor Abayateiye, had, together with four others, undergone a training regime organised for them by KKTR under the instructions of Mr Gibson Asorgor , a Senior Diver Mechanic of VRA, in the last few weeks, to build their capacity in the art and profession of cutting stumps under the Lake Volta with hydraulic chain-saw as part of the expansion programme of KKTR operations.

Diver-base

Until the Diver-based salvage programme, KKTR has relied solely on the use of a Shallow Harvest and Recovery Concept (SHARC) equipment, a Caterpillar-based mobile floating platform which locates trees by sonar, cuts and lifts them to a barge on the surface of the water.

In the words of Mr Francis Mawuena Kalitsi, Chairman of KKTR, “the Diver-based timber salvage programme will enable KKTR to offer over 160 more jobs for the youth from communities around the Volta Lake in addition to deepening the relationship and improving the welfare of the fishermen as it draws heavily on the expertise of the fishermen along the Lake”.

The other advantage of the underwater loggers, according to Mr Elkin Pianim, Chief Executive of KKTR, is that the “loggers are able to cut trees of bigger dimensions and lift them to the surface by the balloon system which the SHARC could not, in line with the objectives of KKTR in making the Volta Lake safe for fishing and transportation “

Mr Pianim said the underwater loggers were also an asset to commuters on the Lake as they would always be available to help rescue traders, schoolchildren and other passengers, including fishermen who might find themselves in danger of drowning.

Mr Jacob Tetteh Ageke, President of the National Inland Canoe Fishermen Council (NICFC), the umbrella body for the thousands of fishermen who ply their trade on the lake, expressed appreciation to the management of KKTR for its good intentions for the communities and fishermen who live by the Volta lake.

Mr Donor Abayateige, the newly trained underwater logger who cut the first tree under the Volta Lake

Lake Volta

The construction of the Lake Volta in 1964 submerged an estimated 14 million cubic metres of recoverable hard wood for which KKTR, a wholly owned Ghanaian company, has the concession to salvage the submerged wood.

Mr Stephen Anani Ahorli, an Environmentalist of the Friends of the Nation (NGO), believes that Ghana’s forest cover reduced by 90 per cent since 1900, salvaging timber from the Volta Lake by KKTR will, therefore, enable Ghana to improve timber exports while protecting and saving the natural forest cover.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in November 2018, inaugurated the company at its project site at Sedorm-Yiti as part of the one-district, one-factory programme for the Asuogyaman District of the Eastern Region.