Tuesday, 17th June, 2025
Hon Bede Anwataazumo Ziedeng
Lawra
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to make this very important and solemn Statement on the floor of this House.
It is with a heart weighed down by sorrow and a deep sense of loss that I rise to draw the attention of this honourable House and indeed, the entire nation to a tragic and avoidable incident that occurred in the Lawra Constituency in the Upper West Region of Ghana. On Saturday, 14th June, 2025, I received the devastating news that seven students of Lawra Senior High School had tragically drowned while attempting to cross the Black Volta River at Dikpe in the Lawra Constituency using a canoe. I received the news through one of the Lawra Constituency executives of the National Democratic Congress, Mr Simon Dery.
Mr Speaker, the news shocked me and I wondered what was the cause of such a calamity. In the course of the day, I was further informed that three of the ten students involved had been rescued but the remaining seven were trapped by the river. Later, the bodies of five were recovered, leaving two of them still in the bowels of the river. The two remaining bodies were found the following day, 15th June.
Mr Speaker, this sad event drew the Regional Director of Ghana Education Service (GES) and his staff, the Regional Directorate of National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and the National Security Office to Lawra Constituency. Subsequently, the Regional Minister also visited Lawra to see things for himself. The event broke the hearts of the people of the Lawra Constituency. In fact, the day could rightly be described as a “Black Saturday”. The loss of these promising young lives has sent shockwaves throughout the Lawra Constituency and the country at large.
Mr Speaker, these were not just students—They were the hope of their families, the pride of their school and the future of our nation. Their sudden and untimely death has left their families shattered, their peers traumatised and our community in mourning. I wish to, on behalf of the entire Lawra Constituency, extend my deepest and most heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families. I also wish to express my sincere sympathy to the Headmaster and staff of Lawra Senior High School, as well as the entire student body of the school, who are struggling to come to terms with this terrible loss.
Mr Speaker, I believe this unfortunate and sad event should be a wake-up call to all of us to be a bit more careful of the way we live our lives because life is unpredictable. In particular, I would admonish all students to conduct themselves with much care when they leave their parental homes and come to be put in the care of school authorities. What we have been told about this event is that these students were part of the school cadet group who decided to do their jogging at the riverside at Dikpe near the Black Volta on Saturday morning.
They were 16 in number, comprising 11 girls and 5 boys. At the riverside, 10 of them, 8 girls and 2 boys, decided to join a canoe, which was being handled by a young man, to take a ride across the river to the Burkina Faso side of the Black Volta River, which forms the border between the two countries, that is Ghana and Burkina Faso. In the course of the trip, water began to enter the boat. The students tried to evacuate the water but more water entered into the canoe and it started sinking. They got frightened and decided to jump out of the canoe and swim out of the water. Unfortunately, not having been trained in swimming, they could not swim to safety. Their commander, who was outside the river, saw the predicament of his cadets and being a trained swimmer, jumped into the river in an attempt to save the lives of his compatriots. Indeed, he was able to bring out only 3 while the remaining 7 perished in the river.
Mr Speaker, my information is that, out of those who died, two of them are from the Lawra Constituency, two from the Dafiama/Bussie/Issah Constituency, one from Nandom, one from Wa, and the last one from Nadowli/Kaleo. The three who were rescued are responding to treatment and are currently living with the headmaster in his bungalow. Obviously, the decision of all the 10 students to join the canoe was one of poor judgements.
I believe that if only about half of that number or even less had joined the canoe, we could have probably avoided this catastrophe. Let us always be guided by the saying that prevention is better than cure by avoiding obvious dangers in our life. This disaster will certainly put avoidable stress on the school authorities as well as a huge financial burden on the bereaved families.
Mr Speaker, I believe that what happened could have been avoided if there were life jackets available to the students. Unfortunately, there was none. I, therefore, wish to appeal to National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) to take steps to provide life jackets for the Dikpe community and all other communities along the Black Water that use boats to commute because that appears to be the only means of transport.
This should not be allowed to happen again. Let us take preventive steps, including public education on safety and security. I further appeal to NADMO, the Regional Coordinating Council, and the Lawra Municipal Assembly to come to the aid of the Lawra Senior High School and the bereaved families by providing support to them in these trying moments. As a stopgap measure, I have decided to procure 10 life jackets as soon as possible to avert any future occurrence.
Mr Speaker, the time has come for us to rise above partisanship and political point scoring. The safety and development of our people must take precedence. The death of these seven students should serve as a national wakeup call, an alarm bell sounding from the banks of the Black Volta at Dikpe, urging us to act. The former President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in November 2020, came to Lawra to inaugurate the construction of the Dikpe Bridge, a very laudable idea, but, sadly, the project has not seen the light of day, while the site has turned into the habitats of rodents and their reptiles.
Mr Speaker, on my part, I wish to use this platform to make an urgent appeal to the Hon Minister for Roads and Highways to take up the construction of the Dikpe Bridge project seriously and as a matter of national priority. We cannot afford to lose more lives. We cannot allow the dreams of our young people to be buried beneath the waters of negligence. Let this House remember these seven students, not just with words but with action. I have already sent a delegation to commiserate with the headmaster and staff of the school as well as the entire student body.
The delegation will also visit the bereaved families, wherever possible, to express our deep condolences to them. Again, Mr Speaker, I extend my deepest condolences to the school and the entire bereaved families. May the gentle souls of the departed students rest in perfect peace, and may we, as leaders, rise to meet our responsibilities with courage and compassion.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity.
Hon Andrew Dari Chiwitey
Sawla/Tuna/Kalba
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to join the Hon Member for Lawra, Hon Bede Anwataazumo Ziedeng, to send my condolences to the bereaved families of the students who, unfortunately, lost their lives trying to cross to the neighbouring country.
Mr Speaker, following the Statement, it is very clear that the students went to the riverside without the guidance of a tutor. I see this as a very unfortunate situation. Considering the number of students that went to the riverside, it would have been good if they had a master or a tutor along. I am very sure that if they had gone to the riverside with a teacher, this unfortunate incident would not have occurred.
Mr Speaker, Lawra Senior High School is also not very close to the riverside, but I am just wondering why the students had to take that risk to go that far. It is also very clear that where the students went to happened to be a route that Ghanaians used to cross to Burkina and the Burkinabes also crossed to our side, and it is very clear that that route is not manned by security officers. This sends a signal that all routes leading to other countries that we share a border with, we must endeavour to put security men around the areas. If there were security officers guiding that route, I am very certain that the students would not taking that risk by sitting in the boat to cross.
Mr Speaker, it is also very clear that the person who was managing the canoe was not very experienced. I am sure if there was an experienced person that manned the canoe, probably, this would not have also happened. Some few years back, because I have relatives across, I lost an uncle. One of my late brothers and I had to be guided by a young lady to cross. At a point, we were compelled to stand up to hold the motorbike because the canoe was unbalancing. In fact, it was only God who saved us. At a point, I closed my eyes, and I was praying in my mind and was waiting for the sound to indicate that the canoe had got to the other end of the river.
Mr Speaker, people are really at risk when it comes to some of these things, but let me conclude by pleading with school authorities to be very cautious and mindful of the students who we lead and are supposed to take care of. Sometimes, we tend to forget that students, at the ages between 15 and 20, are people who want to experiment, so school authorities must be very vigilant.
Also, parents would have to begin to talk to their kids when they are going to school to let them know that they should not risk their lives to the extent of what the students of the Lawra Senior High School did. It is very unfortunate that it has happened already. Let us join hands to send our condolences to the school, the bereaved families and, especially, the Member of Parliament. I know he has gone through a lot of torture, and this is a time for us to support him as they mourn with the bereaved families.
Mr Speaker, may those who lost their lives have a peaceful rest with their Maker, and may those who are alive and with the headmaster of the school also recover speedily. May the school authorities also keep calm and get psychologists to counsel the students to get them back to normal life.
Mr Speaker, once again, I thank you for the opportunity for allowing me to make this comment.
Hon Worlase Kpeli
Kwahu Afram Plains
Thank you, Mr Speaker, and it is correct that I ply the Lake a lot. I share my sadness and condolences with the family of the bereaved in this very tragic moment.
Mr Speaker, like the maker of the Statement vividly narrated, these activities and tragedies have been an everyday thing along our river bodies in the country. I always have a question I ask myself: what is my responsibility in preventing a tragic event like this rather than waiting and lamenting for a cure after it is already done? I think there is something that we, as a country, are not looking critically at. How are we equipping our young ones to cope with the environment and the atmosphere they live in?
It is nonnegotiable that people will live by river bodies. It is non-negotiable that people will cross rivers and streams, like the Black Volta, the White Volta, the Afram River, and the Volta Lake. How do we train the young ones to master the act of living in the environment they find themselves in? As a young boy, I tried to learn to swim in the Volta Lake at the age of six. At that time, because of lack of such knowledge, our parents and uncles would beat us to the core.
As we are all lamenting now, there are no parental guides. But I can say for a fact that anyone who knows how to swim will tell you that if one even puts on a life jacket but cannot master the act of controlling themselves on the river, they will still die with the life jacket. Which means that it is better if we allow and train our children who live around river bodies to master the act of at least being still. But because we do not bring out such policies to equip them in their environment, we end up with these tragic events. It will happen and happen again if we do not equip them.
Mr Speaker, as we represent those people along the lakes here, I see a lot of my senior Colleagues and even first-time MPs along the lake, and we know these things happen, even with school children for whom commuting across rivers has become their everyday life. In my Constituency, the Afram Plains, crossing the river to school is like walking from here to the Job 600 Block and, therefore, it is a normal thing. But how are we going to prevent them from drowning every time, so that it does not become a lamentation speech we read here in Parliament?
I wish, Mr Speaker, that we direct the offices of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), the Navy, and whoever matters in this matter, to start a kind of exercise where they train our students and young ones along our river bodies to, at least, master the act of floating. That is the only way, even if we even provide them with life jackets, they can successfully come out of this kind of situation.
Mr Speaker, it is so sad that even between January and now, in Afram Plains North, I can tell you these events have happened more than five times, and we could not pick any of them alive. It has become the daily life of the people, so it is just like someone dying and being buried. But how long are we going to wait until our young ones who will take over from us drown in river bodies before we take an action to equip them?
Mr Speaker, I will just end it here and say, as a House, we have the power to stand and make a decision that will help us curb further occurrences in the future.
Hon Zuwera Mohammed Ibrahimah
Salaga South
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for this opportunity to contribute to this very important Statement made by my senior Colleague, the Hon Member of Parliament for Lawra.
Mr Speaker, before I say anything, I want to join this House in expressing my condolences to the families of the students, my Colleague MP, and all the stakeholders involved in this matter. Mr Speaker, crossing the river from Dikpe to our first neighbour, Burkina Faso, should ordinarily not make the news. It should not make the news because it is such a basic requirement of the Government to see to our security and to protect us in any part of this country that we find ourselves.
Mr Speaker, when students get on a boat to cross to the other side, Burkina Faso, the excitement is probably not because they want to sit in a boat; it is because they want to go to Burkina Faso, which they could have done if there were a bridge on the river. I do not think that if that river were bridged, the students would ignore walking across the river on the bridge and get onto a boat.
The maker of the Statement has alluded to a sod-cutting ceremony, which was meant to construct a bridge across this river and yet, it was never done. I think that is where we need to place our attention. What are we doing to forestall the recurrence of some of these catastrophes? For those of us MPs along the Volta Lake, either the White Volta or the Black Volta, we see these occurrences every day.
In my Constituency of Salaga South, I am bordered by 46 of such communities, and in most of the communities, there are no schools. Most of the communities do not have a health care centre; so, when a woman in Sokpe is in labour at midnight, they will put the woman on a boat and cross over to Yeji because that is where the nearest hospital is. And I have asked myself, do these people not deserve— When we were in secondary school, every school had a sick bay. For want of a better word, we could just get a facility equivalent to that of a sick bay, where sick people in these communities can be attended to and given first aid before they are moved to the next health centre.
Mr Speaker, that is not the case. When I moved from Salaga to Akamade, where I have been struggling for the last six months to put up a school because even the Government of Ghana would not go there to put up a school— There are no roads and no way to carry building materials. One has to cut everything, including sand, on a boat across the river, and I have been doing that for the past six months because they do not have a school. So, they are on a boat every day. They cross to Agege in the constituency of my Brother, Hon Jinapor, to attend school and back. This had been going on until I found a nongovernmental organisation (NGO) that was ready to help me construct a school in this community.
Mr Speaker, when I sit on the boat from Kafaba, for the three hours that I am on the lake going to Akamade, and as if everything that is inconveniencing is not enough, one does not sight a single speedboat situated on the lake to take care of people who are using the lake in any eventuality. Zero. Mr Speaker, there is no such thing on the lake. I traverse the Volta Lake from Kafaba to Akamade, from Kafaba to Kijewu, and from Makango to Yeji, and there is no boat ready to offer help in case anything happens to us on the lake.
Mr Speaker, these are the bigger issues that the Government has to advert its mind to. That is why for me, in February, when we read the report that the Ministry of Defence had partnered the Minister for Road and Highways to construct a bridge across a stream in Asuokow in the Lower West Akim Constituency in the Eastern Region, we were very excited.
And Mr Speaker, that very day I read the report, I sat behind my desktop and I wrote a very beautiful letter to the Minister for Roads and Highways and the Minister for Defence asking for similar collaboration to address the same problem in Sarikingonakura in my constituency where the children — you do not know how to describe that water body; whether it is a pond, whether it is a creek or a canal, because it depends on the time of year one goes there.
It’s characteristics change, but what is constant is that the school children are on the lake in canoes or rafts, paddling adults like me across — because I have to go and campaign in Sarikingonakura. When I have to go there from Kigbatito, I have to sit on the boat, and these little boys have to paddle me across to the other side. No schooling, no healthcare — this is Ghana.
Mr Speaker, the Legislators and the Executive, I think we need to understand that Ghana is not Accra, Tamale, Kumasi or Takoradi. Ghana includes Kijewu Battor, Adevukope, Atayikura, No Man’s Land, Sarikingonakura, Mataheko, Accrape, Chakara. They are all part of this country and so when we are allocating the national resources of this country that all of us are entitled to, we must remember these people.
Fortunately, the Minister for Roads and Highways has responded to my letter, and by the grace of Allah, he has promised to put a steel bridge on that creek so that at least we can all move in comfort.
Mr Speaker, Before I take my seat, let me once again say my condolences to the bereaved family, and my prayer is with the Hon Member of Parliament for the area, because I know — he did not include that in the Statement, but I know the pressure that he will be undergoing at this time to address everybody’s problems. We are with you, Hon MP. We pray that Government will listen to our cry and help make life a little bit better for all of us.
Mr Speaker, thank you very much,
Hon Richard Kuuire
Nandom
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
I stand to support Mr Bede Ziedeng. Nandom shares boundaries with Lawra and the same Black Volta runs through our constituencies. Secondly, Lawra is 18 miles from Nandom, and by that, most of the students come from other places, including people from my constituency. This tragedy affects mostly schools and constituencies in the Upper West Region, and one of the victims was from my constituency, so I am grateful to Mr Bede for bringing this issue to this House. I want to say I am with my Brother Bede in this serious situation.
I cannot imagine as a parent that I am home, then all of a sudden, I hear that my child got drowned in the Black Volta; It will be very devastating. What I want to say is, in the narrative, he made mention that the cause was that the canoe had a hole and water was seeping into it. This is a very serious issue. Along the Black Volta, there are many points where people cross from Ghana to Burkina and vice versa. I am not sure anybody has had the time to ever inspect the canoes that they use. If it were so, maybe this situation would not have arisen.
Panic was one of the issues, and I want to suggest that NADMO adds inspection of these canoes to its normal duties. We do not wait until there is a disaster and we come and make beautiful speeches here of sympathy and whatnot, but we cannot bring back the lives lost. Also, we hear the students were members of the school cadet corps and that they do not know how to swim. Any serious cadet corps should include swimming lessons in its activities.
So, I would encourage all schools that have cadet corps, and particularly those around places where we have rivers and lakes and whatnot, to include swimming lessons in their activities. I did not hear about a supervisor who took them to the riverside. What I heard was that somebody from outside was able to come into the water and succeeded in rescuing three of the students.
I think all schools should take into consideration that when they are going out, there must be a supervisor who will take the decision and not the students themselves taking a decision to cross the river into Burkina Faso. That river is quite large, and I think when the water kept seeping through, they panicked. But if there were a supervisor, he could have just called upon them to keep calm and that he would manage the situation.
Mr Speaker, I want to say to the whole of Upper West — because the students came from different constituencies; we are all mourning these students, and I want to tell Mr Bede Ziedeng that we will all support what he is doing, because I also have many crossing points from my constituency into Burkina Faso. My condolences to the parents, the school and to Mr Bede Ziedeng and to myself, because I also lost somebody in that tragedy.
With those few words, Mr Speaker, I thank you.
Hon Frank Annoh-Dompreh
Nsawam/Adoagyiri
Mr Speaker, on hearing this sad news, I was reminded — I was just trying to relate to my Colleague across the aisle, my Chief Whip.
When we were at the University of Cape Coast, we recorded a sad story. I think we were in the second year when a number of students, three students at a go, got drowned at the beach. So, I can identify with the pain and the misery. I know my Senior, Hon Bede Ziedeng, is somebody who is very careful in what to speak to. So, my heart goes out there to him, having made time to speak to this matter in showing solidarity and condolences to the family and the bereaved.
Mr Speaker, not to belabour the point, we have read these stories in the media oftentimes, and we lament about it, and then we go home to sleep. Interestingly, I do not know if the Black Volta is closer to the White Volta — I am not getting my geography well, but the Black Volta, the White Volta, the River Volta, and a number of water bodies intersperse geographical boundaries of our country. And the begging question is, especially at this time of the year, when the rain is here —
The begging question, especially at this time of the year where the rain is here, is that, as a serious country, should we not be taking measures against these disasters? I am happy to say that the Minister for Roads and Highways who is very dutiful has responded. It is good, but we all have to follow through to get to the conclusion of it. It is not just the Minister for Roads and Highways, but I think the Minister for Transport is also relevant. Transport on water bodies such as canoes and transportation generally on the water bodies come under the purview of the Minister for Transport. With a lot of sadness, I can imagine if this thing happened to my son or daughter, it would be a very sad story to record. Mr Speaker, you are lethargic in giving consequential directives. Nowadays, I do not want to invite Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker has put on ashes, and he is very sad. But specific to this matter and I will pray you that, Mr Speaker, we should give some timelines—Timelines to get the Minister for Roads and Highways and the Minister Transport to put their heads together; either they meet up with the Hon Bede Ziedeng, but it is not just about him. I know other parts of the country where the danger is rearing its ugly head: the Afram Plains, the constituency of my own good friend; Hon Rockson has a big river in his constituency; the River Volta goes through his constituency.
Mr Speaker, the matter cuts across the entire country, so let us look at it in its absolute sense, so that we do not limit ourselves. Senior, I am not taking anything away from the importance of the event, but I am saying that we should look at it from broad perspective. If would you recall, before we rose, there was a facility in this House that we approved from Czech Republic or so, and they were supposed to build bridges across the country. I do not know if any of us remembers this. So, government is a continuous process. We will pray that the Minister for Roads and Highways and the Minister for Transport—
Mr Speaker, I will conclude and invite a superior view from my good friend since he lives by the river.
Hon Rockson-Nelson Etse Kwami Dafeamekpor
South Dayi
Mr Speaker, let me give my deepest condolences to the family members whose pain has been ventilated on this Floor by their able representative, the Hon Bede Ziedeng.
Mr Speaker, a lot of people do not know that there is a whole life and economy on the Volta Lake and its major tributaries. Mr Speaker, in this Parliament, we have as many as 52 constituencies that are around the Volta Lake; 52 constituencies that are part of the Volta Lake. So, I can mention constituencies like South Dayi, North Dayi, North Tongu, South Tongu, Central Tongu, Kpando, Biakoye, Nkwanta North, Krachi East, Krachi West, Krachi Nchumuru which are all in Oti Region.
Mr Speaker, we have Sene in the Bono Region; we have Sene West, Sene East, Pru East, Pru West, Kintampo North, Bole, Central Gonja, Asuogyaman, Afram Plains North and South, Salaga, Banda, Nandong, Daboya, Mankarigu, Yeji, Yapei Kusawgu—Hon Abu Jinapor, pay attention to these matters. Mr Speaker, Damango, are very close to the water, and there are a lot of their constituents whose lives dependon the activities that happen on the Volta Lake.
Mr Speaker, the matters that have been raised are very important. If you travel to other countries where there are water bodies—Let me cite, for instance, our own sister country, Tanzania, where you have Zanzibar, which is the island, and the people of Zanzibar travel to the mainland in Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam, they use what they call water buses, and it is beautiful. They have the big water buses as well as the small ones.
In fact, there are water taxis and, Mr Speaker, these things do not cost much. It is just about the initiative and implementing them. This is not the first time that disasters on any of the tributaries to the Volta Lake has taken live. In fact, in South Dayi, in 2022, over 60 people who came to one of the biggest periodic markets we have in this country, the Jamani Market and they were travelling to the constituency of my Brother, Hon Wolarsi, in the Afram Plains North—
Mr Speaker, on the Volta Lake, when you are in the boat and you are travelling, if you travel for about 20 minutes from the shore, the life on the lake is like the mighty sea. You do not see anything. When you are in the boat, it is as if you are on the high seas. And the kind of storm that can, out of the blue, erupt on the water is akin to what we can see on the high seas. So, when the boats are rickety and they are not properly equipped to withstand such tumultuous weather and storms on the water, they sink because the boats become stormtossed and they are not hardy and are not properly built to withstand such terrrific storms. They are crushed and they take lives. We lost about 40 people and it became a national disaster matter; NADMO came in as usual. They did their reports as they are supposed to do, but that was just about it.
Mr Speaker, I do not want us to belabour this matter, but I want to ask some pertinent questions. The Volta Lake is about 60 years old; the inundation began from about 1961 and the Dam got filled up in about 1965, so it is about 60 years old. The Volta River Authority (VRA) was created as a result of that, and the VRA gave birth to a subsidiary called the Volta Lake Transport Company. The Volta Lake Transport Company is a statutory company established to take care of transportation matters on the Volta Lake.
What has been its responsibility, Mr Speaker, to the millions of Ghanaians whose everyday life depend on what they do on the Lake, the commercial activities such as fishing, and also for social cohesion? They move from between one village and another, and they need to travel on the Lake. They need a means of transportation. We have legislation in place that demands that, before one sits on a boat, whether motorised or canoe paddled, they need to wear life jackets, but we do not implement that law. So, persons take the risk and sit in the boats because that is what is available and, very often, like we just recounted, at the peril of their lives. Can we get NADMO spending some resources to provide life jackets?
Mr Speaker, one life jacket is nearly a GH₵1000; it is so expensive, so the average man who lives by the lake and depends on it, is unable to purchase it. It is so expensive for the boat owners; they are unable to purchase it. Can we direct that some resources be allocated to purchasing life jackets to be distributed to boat owners by way of social intervention for both owners and the persons who depend on it?
Mr Speaker, sometimes people perish just trying to go and write Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) or West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE). We have had Members come here with Statements that students were going to write exams and they were in the middle of the water, they were caught by some storm, their boat got storm-tossed and they perished; it has happened. So, when we speak of social intervention, like you said, these are some of the critical matters. I share the pain of Hon Zuweira Ibrahim because those of us who live by the lake, even during campaign times, journey on the lake to go and reach out to these people and seek votes, and we MPs also risk our lives.
Mr Speaker, with this Statement, I believe that as a House we can make some—Because the essence of what we do often leads to legislation. Before we do that, can we say that NADMO should devote some resources to purchasing life jackets? It is so dear to me. The way we MPs give mathematical sets to BECE students, we should be able to have such resources to purchase life jackets and donate to these communities along the river bodies, first of all, by way of intervention. Some people who just travel to go to a farm, fishing or a funeral perish while on their way. So, at the primary of all that we are discussing,
Mr Speaker, is that this has happened, so what can Parliament, as an organ of state, do? We shall express the matters, but we need to make interventions that will go to—We may not be able to eliminate it, but we should be able to reduce the incidence of the number of fatalities that we experience when it happens.
Mr Speaker, with these few words, I thank you for the opportunity and once again, our deepest condolences to the people.
AskParly