Fishermen at Mumford in the Central Region are asking the government to complete the fishing landing site that’s under construction.
According to them, the current state of the fish landing harbour is leading to a lot of canoe accidents.
The fishermen spoke to JoyNews when Check Rite Foundation, a human-empowerment NGO, began equipping them with some basic safety practices that would help reduce the spate of accidents both at sea and at the beaches.
According to the fisher folk, the ongoing project at Mamford, though good, should be re-assessed to help them in their work. They say a number of death-related accidents have occurred due to the nature of the project.
Nana Kwamena Obo, who leads the fisherman of Mumford said “the number of accidents are uncountable. About 25 canoes have so far been destroyed. We have recorded about six deaths and there are many who are currently receiving treatment as a result. We requested for the harbour to be built, but it needs to be relooked at to serve our needs.”
He added that “the current state of the project will not help us because a lot of the canoes are unable to dock at our beach. As I speak with you, there are many of the canoes that are unable to land. We see ropes hanging around the project and that makes people fall down very often”.
Chief Executive Officer of Check Rite Foundation, June Bonney, says his outfit is intervening to train the fishers on some basic safety practices that would reduce the risk.
“I have already spoken with the Chief Fisherman, and he’s shared their concerns with me. We have observed some of the dangers that happen at sea. And these cause a lot of accidents. It was one of the incidents that happened recently that informed my group to intervene. When it happened, there was no CPR to resuscitate the victims.
“It is not only here that is experiencing these challenges, a lot of the coastal areas are also experience same. We hope that this pilot project helps them so we can extend the same training to Elmina and other coastal lines”.
The fishermen say the swift intervention by government would help them a great deal to minimize the rate of accident.