A GROUP of people from Yeji in the Pru district of the Brong Ahafo region have petitioned government to remove the stumps in the Volta Lake which have been the cause of many tragic accidents.

They said the continued existence of the stumps posed great danger to lake users as many had lost their lives through rampant boat disasters on the lake.

The petitioners were Kwame Sarfo and Joe Gli of the Yeji Cooperative Lake Transport and Fishermen Society, Yaw Badu of the Yeji Cooperative Fish Processing and Marketing Society, George Boboase and Nana Siahene Mpre Kukuigyi II, Gyasehene of Yeji.

“Over the years particularly between the periods of 1990-2011, 364 lives were lost in addition to millions of Ghana cedis due to accidents on the Volta Lake,” they revealed.

The petitioners said as a result of the advocacy they embarked upon, stringent measures had been put in place regarding overloading, maintenance of boats, and daily meteorological reports under the command of the Ghana Navy stationed at Yeji.

They however noted that the issue of provision of life jackets and removal of the stumps were yet to be tackled by government.

“We could vividly remember that government in 2006 announced the removal of the stumps from the lake when a Canadian firm had completed the feasibility studies in the lake. Today, we are reliably informed that Clark Sustainable Resource (CSR) Limited, the Canadian firm has been awarded exclusive right to harvest timber from the lake for the next 25 years.

We therefore feel that the CSR Ltd must be made to humanely remove the stumps from the fairways to the villages along the bank of the Volta Lake while harvesting and processing their timber,” they said.

The concerned citizens of the town on behalf of other stakeholders suggested to government to review the contract with the Canadian firm to include the clearing of stumps if government was really concerned about the plight of lake users.

The group also appealed to government to make life jackets available towards saving lives in times of calamity.