Tema, Feb. 18, GNA - Zoil Services Limited, a subsidiary of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, has launched a two-week training programme to train Life Guards to handle disasters and reduce accidents on the Volta Lake. The training, which is being held at the Eastern Naval Command, Tema, is under the theme, "Course Wash-Up Ceremony".

The project, code-named Volta Lake Transport Enhancement Project, a concept developed by Zoil, is being undertaken in partnership with the Ministry of Transport, the Ghana Maritime Authority and the Ghana Navy. Zoil Coordinator for the project, Miss Monica Buabeng, said the training was aimed at equipping the people with the skills on how to patrol and monitor activities on the Volta Lake in order to reduce bad practices that usually led to disasters.

She said the company had decided to train the leaders of the various regions so they in turn would go back to their destinations to train their various groups with the skills to handle any disaster on the Lake. Participants would be taken through basic military fitness to enable them to have a sound mind since the safety of the people who travel on the Volta Lake is extremely important.

The Manager of Zoil Ghana Limited, Mr Opoku Manu, who gave an insight into the initiative, said public concerns over the series of disasters on the Volta Lake, which had claimed of many lives, motivated the company to initiate the training.

He added that the frequency with which they occurred had become a worrying phenomenon for all. The latest accident, which occurred at Wusuta in the Kpando District of the Volta Region on Monday, October 19, 2009, claimed the lives of 20 people mostly women and children.

Mr Manu expressed grief about the alarming rate at which these tragic accidents occurred while no effective solutions appeared to have been found. "For some time now the country has been experiencing a series of disasters on the Volta Lake. Several lives have been lost in these disasters and the frequency with which they occur have become a worrying phenomenon for all, and it is for this reason that Zoil Services Limited has launched this project," he added. 1