Commuters face danger as they cross the White Volta River at Daboya in the North Gonja District on overloaded canoes which have no life jackets.
Hundreds of passengers, most of whom are traders, cross the river to and fro Daboya and its surrounding communities in the Savannah Region to transact their businesses without observing the required safety measures.
Operators of the canoes do not provide life jackets for the passengers to ensure that should there be any emergency, their safety would be assured.
When the Daily Graphic visited the area last weekend, it observed that many passengers were putting their lives in danger with the total disregard for the use of life jackets.
The situation is even made more precarious with the constant overloading of the canoes, numbering about 20 stationed at both sides of the river, with passengers, goods and motorbikes.
Canoe accidents
Canoe disasters have become an annual occurrence around the area as most commuters prefer using the canoe because that route is shorter, as it is only 48 kilometres to Tamale, the Northern Regional capital.
The Damongo-Fufulso junction road is the safest route to Tamale, but it is almost twice the distance across the river.
In 2014, at least six people drowned after a canoe on which they were travelling capsized in the Daboya White Volta River. A similar canoe disaster on the river claimed three teenage lives in 2016, while three other persons drowned and four persons were rescued in 2017 when their boat capsized.
Concerns
Some passengers who spoke to the Daily Graphic lamented the lack of life jackets in the area, saying they had no option than to travel on the river without the life jackets as none was provided on the canoes.
“It is very scary to cross the river without wearing life jackets, but we don’t have any option now. If there is any disaster in the middle of the river, it will be very dangerous,” a passenger, Hajia Asebi, lamented.
She, therefore, appealed to authorities to provide the canoe operators with safety gears for onward distribution to passengers who patronised their canoes.
Another passenger, Frederick Salifu, recounted how he almost lost his life on the river sometime ago when the canoe nearly capsized, saying, “It was only God who saved us and the canoe operator managed to paddle us to safety.”
Life jackets
A canoe operator, Jamoni Baba, said the lack of life jackets was very worrying because it was very risky crossing the river without wearing them.
