Accra, Jan 18. GNA - A Canadian firm involved in under-water resources management on Wednesday expressed its readiness to assist Ghana to dislodge trees under the Volta Lake. Mr Joe Clark, Canadian Member of Parliament and Executive Chairman of Clark Sustainable Resource Developments (CSRD) Limited, said his firm had the technology to get rid of trees that grow under lakes without destroying the lakebed. Mr Clark gave the assura nce during a courtesy call on Professor Dominic Fobih, Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines, in Accra. He said the project involved using underneath water robot-driven cutting saw to cut and pull trees to facilitate the safety of lake transport.
"We believe that Ghana has immense commercial value under the Volta Lake, which could be tapped to help to improve the economy, and there are real ways in which the environment can be protected and improved by a serious programme of harvesting," Mr Clark said. Mr Clarke said discussions on the project had been concluded with the Volta River Authority and expressed the hope that an agreement could be reached for CSRD to begin a demonstration project in November this year. "Ghana would be the first country outside Canada to try this new technology, and if it works, we will try it in other tropical lakes in Africa, and also in South America and Asia", Mr Clark said. Professor Fobih said the Government "welcomed any move to introduce innovation into Forestry" and said the project could be useful to Ghana because there were trees in many rivers in the country that were difficult to recover.
He said the project would boost national efforts to rid water bodies of aquatic weeds adding that a final decision would be reached in consultation with all stakeholders.
