Hope fades for 8 persons feared drowned in Bui Dam
Rescuers’ hope of finding eight people who got missing after their boat capsized on the Bui Dam Reservoir in the Banda District of the Brong Ahafo Region last Friday is fading.
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This is because a Ghana Navy search party has not been able to find the eight three days after the boat disaster.
Seventeen out of the 25 people who were travelling from Jama, a village near the reservoir, to Accra Town, another village, to trade were rescued.
The incident happened when the boat on which they were travelling developed a mechanical fault mid-way through the journey.
Public Relations Manager
The Public Relations Manager of the Bui Power Authority (BPA), Ms Cherie Lawson Adamu, was quoted as saying that a search for the eight missing people by a team from the Ghana Navy stationed in the area had proved unsuccessful so far.
According to her, the search last Saturday only led to the retrieval of “a wrecked boat with dead mammals”.
Ms Adamu said the Ghana Navy would not abandon the search but continue until it was able to unravel the mystery behind the missing eight people.
In a press release issued last Friday, the Chief Executive Officer of the BPA, Mr Fred Oware, explained the circumstances about the capsized boat and efforts being made to rescue those who were reported to have gone missing after the accident.
Local residents said the level of the reservoir had been rising as a result of the continued rainfall in the area recently.
The Bui Dam/Reservoir
The Bui Dam was created on the Black Volta at Bui in the Banda District to produce about 400 megawatts of power.
It is the second largest hydroelectric generating plant in Ghana, after the Akosombo Dam.
The reservoir created as a result of the construction of the dam has a capacity of 112,570 million cubic metres of water, out of which 7,720 million cubic metres is useful for power generation and irrigation.
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