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Not too long, an Italian firm was contracted to t down and uproots tree stumps in the Volta River at Yeji.

This exercise was undertaken during the tenure of ex-president John Agyekum Kufuor. The exercise was fiercely resisted by the boat owners, who provide transportation on the river, and the basis for their resistance was genuine, because they thought the method by which the exercise was going to be conducted, was a bit problematic.

The boat owners wanted only tree stumps on their routes removed, and their reason was very simple, when accidents happen on the lake, the trees in the river also saves life. The victims do swim and hung onto these trees.

So if you remove all tree stumps, including the trees in the river it can be seen by everyone that it does not pose any danger, but rather saves life, you will be doing a great disservice and they will be needless loss of lives.

The Italian firm, could not execute the contract, because the workload was too small, as compared to them removing all the trees in the river.
Attempts have been made over the years, to stop the needless loss of lives on the lake, when the water level is down.

Available evidence also show that, not only the tree stumps causes accident, accidents are also caused by outboard machines catching fire, storms on the river and overloading of the boats and even sometimes, cattle that are loaded in the boats.

We need to adopt a holistic approach, if we want to end the annual ritual, where our people are sacrificed on the lake, for no apparent reason.

On Sunday, another boat capsized, killing nineteen innocent people, including children. For how long can these avoidable incidents be allowed to go on? In the 21st century, Ghana is above this.

The government must engage the boat owners and find a competent firm that will be ready to engage all the stakeholders at arriving at a more suitable solution.