As the Navy led Rescue Team continues with efforts to retrieve bodies from Sunday’s Volta Lake disaster at Yeji, Member of Parliament for the area and the Director General of the Ghana Maritime Authority are engaged in banter over whose inaction continuous to cause accidents on the waterway.
MP, Hon. Dr Kwanena Donkor and Dr Peter Azumah have accused each other of doing little to prevent the frequent fatal accidents on the Volta Lake.
The death toll of Sunday’s accident on the Volta Lake has risen to 13 people. The incident happened when passengers mostly traders were traveling from Nankyei Kura to Yeji when their boat hit a tree stump causing the boat to capsize.
But Hon. Dr Kwabena Donkor has blamed lack of enforcement of safety regulations on the Volta Lake by the regulatory authority and the various district assemblies along the Lake for the needless deaths.
“There’s a Ghana Maritime Authority that has the responsibility for overseeing all maritime activities on the Volta Lake as well as coastal Ghana. For example I sincerely believe that every boat should be equipped with a number of life jackets, this is so basic and yet on the Volta Lake this is not being enforced.”
However GMA Boss, Dr Azumah has lambasted Dr Donkor for failing to prevent deaths of his constituents as he has failed to act.
“What effort has he done as an MP for the area? Even to come to the Director General so that we put our heads together to solve some of these problems he doesn’t find it necessary.Wwhen has he thought of it as a problem such that he traces it to the Ghana Maritime Authority? He doesn’t know what we are doing.
“It is unfortunate that a responsible person like an MP will make such a statement. I want him to understand that the first Naval Taskforce station that was introduced in this country that has significantly reduced accidents on the Lake was established at Yeji, I undertook the trouble to consult my colleague Chief of Naval Staff got the minister to sign a letter for secondment of these staff, we paid for their allowances, accommodation and feeding. They ensured that the human element, overloading which was the main factor that causes accident on the Lake was significantly reduced.”
Dr Azumah noted that it has been recently been realized that the work of the taskforce needs to be complemented by patrol boats which requires substantial amount of money to buy; which the GMA is currently not in a position to purchase.
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