Where is the 2002 Volta Lake boat disaster report?

Minister for Ports Harbours and Railways Christopher Ameyaw Akumfi last week inaugurated an eight member committee to investigate the April 8, 2006 Volta Lake disaster but failed to disclose the outcome of a similar committee formed in the aftermath of April 2002 Volta Lake disaster.

A total of 99 people got drowned in that incident.

According to the Dispatch newspaper, the terms of reference for the April 2002 six member committee chaired by Justice Paul Gyaesayor, then a supervising High Court Judge at Ho, included finding the cause of the accident and to establish the actual number of people who lost their lives.

The Gyaesayor committee set up by the ministry of Roads and Transport was also expected to recommend effective regulations and enforcements of measures to ensure safe transportation on the Volta Lake.

This is a report of the first sitting of the Gyaesayor Committee, reported by the GNA and reported in the August 8, 2002 issue of the Daily Graphic

? Mr Kwaku Gyamfi 35, a native of Senya Breku and a fisherman at manchedi, a village along the Volta Lake and a survivor of the accident at Amevlovikope Island who he said later joined the search and rescue team told the committee that the counted 84 bodies after the disaster.

Mr Gyamfi attributed the cause of the accident to overloading of the boat.

He said more than 200 people including school children boarded the boat which was already carrying 150 bamboo sticks, a number of bags of sugar and a quantity of flour, salt and corn dough.

Mr Gyamfi said he saw women who were in the boat, weeping when the two assistant operators of the boat found it difficult to scoop water out of the boat after they had switched off the two engines attached to the boat.

To a question by the chairman of the committee as to how he managed to survive he said as a fisherman he swam onto the capsized boat.

?It took about two hours before a boat came to their rescue,?

Another survivor Matthew Hovi who is also a fisherman told the committee that he saw about 200 passengers on the boat and many bodies including that of a three year old child floating on the lake after the incident.

He was however happy because he was able to rescue his wife who was also on the boat.