Afram Plains residents demand urgent fix for broken Agordeke Ferry
Chiefs, residents, and traders in and around Agodeke, a farming community in the Afram Plains North District, have made an urgent appeal to the Government and the Volta Lake Transport Company to immediately intervene and either repair or replace the ferry on Volta Lake, which has broken down for over a month now.
Commuters who have been gripped with fear while resorting to wooden boats and canoes, the only means to travel the 23 nautical miles journey from Agordeke to Kpando in the Volta Region on the Volta Lake without life jackets, say their lives are at risk.
The Afram Plains enclave continues to be a major food basket for the country, as the fertile lands in the area support farming year-round, which drives the country’s economy.
Farmers, traders and residents in the Afram Plains North area, specifically Agodeke and its island communities, have been at the back end due to the breakdown of the only ferry, which also happens to be the only safest mode of transport on the Volta Lake.
Residents and traders who define the current situation as dire demand immediate government intervention to ease their current burdens.
“It is rather unfortunate that for one month, two weeks now, the engine of the ferry has broken down. We are appealing to the government to provide the necessary resources to fix the ferry because we travel in fear,” a resident stated.
The ferry was originally commissioned in 2016 by President John Dramani Mahama, and before its immediate breakdown a month ago has since been the safest mode of water transport in the area, transporting goods including farm produce from Agordeke to Kpando in the Eastern part of the Volta Region.
“We plead with President Mahama to come to our aid, especially because he was the one who provided it for us,” Nana Akuamoah Boateng Tano II, the Chief of Donkorkrom No.1. told Channel One News.
April 5, 1995, is a day that brings bad memories to residents and family members who lost about 140 people after a passenger boat capsized on the Afram River on the same Agordeke to Kpando route.
To prevent a recurrence of this unfortunate national disaster, an advocacy group known as the Concerned Citizens of Kwahu Afram Plains North held a press conference after visiting the graveyard to pay homage to the 140 lives that perished in 1995. Awudu Yakubu Omoro Modoc is the spokesperson for the group.