NGO kicks against removal of tree stumps in Volta Lake

The Management of Challenging Heights, a Child’s Right non-governmental organisation (NGO), on Wednesday expressed concern about the impending removal of tree stumps in the Volta Lake.

In a statement issued in Accra Mr James Kofi Annan, Executive Director said the project on the lake would result in the death of more women and children.

“Because women and children are those who have less swimming abilities, they are 10 times likely to die than men in the event of any disaster on the lake. To save more lives, fishermen rush to these trees for safety whenever there is a storm or disaster,’ it said.

“Although the nation stands to realise more than  2.8 billion dollars and to generate employment from the deal, this transaction is potentially at the expense of women and children who work on the lake but who, without these tree stumps, stand the risk of losing their lives and livelihoods, “the statement said.

It said though the project would potentially employ 1,000 workers, more than 100,000 fishermen and women risked losing their livelihood.

Fishing in the lake contributes 90 per cent of the total inland fishing needs of the country.

“Almost all the fishermen interviewed on this issue fear that the fish stock in the lake would reduce drastically.  This is because the trees served as feed and breeding site for the fishes.  What the removal of the stumps means for the fishermen is that all fishermen would need to acquire bigger canoes with canoe anchors and outboard motors with the potential of increased capital cost and children’s involvement in worst forms of child labour,” the statement said.

It said the lake gets easily agitated with the slightest of wind, and since crossing it from one side to the other could take over an hour, depending on the location, fishermen used the stumps as their anchor in the event of storms to tie their canoes for safety.

“This safety-net is needed by the fishermen almost on daily basis without which Ghana would have witnessed more disasters than being witnessed in the past,” it added.

The statement said the absence of the stumps would always inflate the volumes of the waves of the lake and get it more agitated in the events of storms.

Currently, there are two main parts of the lake- there is the main trench which was the actual constructed field where the pontoons and big boats travel on, which is narrow and barely 100 meters apart.

There are no tree stumps in these fields because the creation of the lake came with the complete removal of all the trees.

The second part is where the lake simply over-flow its originally intended banks and spread several kilometres by each side.  These peripheral parts can be hundreds of meters wider than the main trench.  These are the parts which have the tree stumps still standing.

There is always an ample difference between the levels of agitation of the lake in the main trench and the peripherals where the stumps are still standing.  The main trenches are often more agitated and risky for users anytime there is a storm.

“Our inclination therefore is that if these tree stumps are removed, the lake would become more agitated at the least storm and would make travelling on it much more unsafe than it is now,” it said.

Places such as Agege, Nigeria Camp, Bethlehem, Rome, Obra Ewie, Nkwanta, up to Buipe are smaller parts of the lake, and so removing the tree stumps would not pose as much risk to users as it would to those places from Ada, Makango, to Kpando where the water body is very wide and easily agitated.

“In our opinion, government would have to acquire several speed and rescue boats to rescue women and children in the event of disasters.  We recommend that adequate discussions should be carried out beyond armchair expert recommendations.  The fishermen who have worked and lived along the lake should be adequately consulted on this issue before its implementation,” the statement said.

“If the removal of these tree stumps is not done thoroughly, it can result in more frequent damages to the nets of the fishermen, and the death of many more children on the lake.  This is because the fishermen already know their fishing bearings on the lake as to the specific locations where they could cast their nets without too many entanglements.”

“If the debris of these tree stumps are left in the wake of the contractors, then we are likely to distort the bearings of our brothers fishermen who have studied these fishing sites for several years. The number of the entrapment of fishing nets would therefore increase, which would consequently increase the risk of deaths from diving by children.”

The NGO currently operates in Awutu Senya, Agona West and Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa in the Central Region and Atebubu and Pru Districts in the Brong Ahafo Region.

Source: GNA