The bodies of eight women, including a pregnant woman, who perished when a boat on which they were travelling capsized in the Oti River in the Krachi East District of the Volta Region last Monday evening, have been retrieved.
The women were part of 19 passengers travelling on board the boat named, Oti Transport, last Monday around 6:30pm when it capsized.
The eight women unfortunately got drowned.
The Volta Regional Public Relations Officer of Zoomlion, Francis Tawiah, who confirmed this to Daily Guide, noted that the passengers were returning from Wulembo to Dambai after going to harvest tubers of yam and rice that day from their farms.
When they were about reaching Dambai, the boat, filled with over 3000 tubers of yam and 15 sacks of rice, hit a tree stump in the river causing the boat to capsize.
A rescue team comprising the Ghana Navy and Zoil Lifeguards stationed at Dambai rushed in to save the situation, but the boat sunk faster.
Mr. Tawiah, who commiserated with the families of the victims, was incensed at the fact that the women and girls who were more vulnerable died a preventable death.
The men, however, survived the storm.
He stressed that �if they were in lifejackets, their lives would have been saved.� Apparently, the Boat Owner, Yaw Anasenchor, had been given 45 life jackets by ZOIL on July 15 and 21, 2013, just a month ago.
However, not even one was found in the boat which was being operated by one Ayuba.
Some months ago, it came to the attention of Daily Guide that passengers on the Volta Lake across the region had developed a phobia for lifejackets meant to save them. As a result, they prefer to travel unprotected, at the peril of their lives.
The trend had become a headache for Navy operatives, lifeguards and other safety workers along the Volta Lake who feared it could one day lead to a major boat disaster.
Francis Tawiah, therefore, prayed that boat owners would give the life jackets to their operators who would also ensure its use.
ZOIL, as of July, had distributed about 4000 lifejackets across the region.
<<Print>>