/ 20 June 1999

GHANAIAN TRAGEDY BOAT ILL-EQUIPPED: REPORT

AN overloaded boat which sank two weeks ago on Ghana’s Lake Volta, where more than 60 people drowned, was not authorised or equipped to carry passengers, marine officials said on Friday. In a government-commissioned report by Ghana’s Marine Surveyors, an investigation concluded that the boat carrying an estimated 90 people was neither certified, licensed or insured to carry passengers or goods on the lake. The report also said that the boat, which sank in high winds on June 4, had no proper communication equipment for issuing distress signals, nor did it have any life-saving gadgets normally required for such vessels. The team of Marine Surveyors indicated that the crew lacked basic knowledge of navigation principles. Twenty-seven passengers who survived the accident told police that the boat was overloaded with a cargo that included five cows, 150000 yams and 300 bags of groundnuts.