Kwahu South DISEC members on their way to KKTR operation site
The Kete Krachi Timber Recovery (KKTR) Limited and fishermen on the Kwahu South section of the Volta Lake have smoked a peace pipe and agreed to work in harmony.
The meeting at Mpraeso Kwahu was supervised by the Kwahu South District Security Council (DISEC) where the parties after four hours of frank exchanges agreed to co-exist, live in harmony and work together for their mutual benefits.
The stakeholder consultation which was supervised by the Kwahu South District Chief Executive (DCE), Emmanuel Attah Ofori, provided the opportunity for representatives of the fishermen to register the cause of their agitation against the operations of KKTR on the Lake Volta, which also serves as the source of their fishing occupation.
After the meeting which included the national and local leadership of the National Inland Canoe Fishermen Council, it emerged that a number of the issues agitating the minds of the Bamboo Fishermen were misconceptions, including a false allegation that the trees in the Volta Lake were being uprooted.
It also emerged from the discussion that the SHARC equipment used for the cutting of the trees in the lake had been constructed such that it did not have the capacity to cut smaller trees and used a special Panolin fuel imported from North America which is environmentally friendly and does not pollute the river.
The DCE said later that based on the issues discussed, there would not be any reason for the fishermen to disrupt the activities of KKTR which is under the One-district One-factory (1D1F) initiative.
The Odikro of Nketepa, Nana Kwabena Obeng, said the meeting had cleared some misconceptions about the company.
Gideon Prempeh, the Kwahu South District Chief Fisherman, called for more of such interactions for a healthy relationship between the fishers and the KKTR.
Jacob Tetteh Ageke, President of the National Inland Canoe Fishermen Council, said in order that KKTR operated within the terms of agreement between the two entities, a representative of the NICFC had been placed permanently on the boat (SHARC) to ensure strict compliance by the KKTR.
Kwame Antwi- Adjei, Technical Adviser at the 1D1F secretariat, said the activities of KKTR were helping to preserve forest cover since their operations are in the lake.
Mr. Kweku Sersah-Johnson, a Communication Specialist, and Ali Marnah, Operations Manager of KKTR, both expressed the gratitude of the company to the DISEC, especially the DCE and the NICFC for bringing an end to what they described as ‘unnecessary rivalry and hostility’ between a section of the fishermen and the company.
A day after the meeting, members of the DISEC, heads of the fishermen and officials from the assembly led by the DCE visited the current operations cite of KKTR on the lake to have a first-hand view of how dead wood is harvested from the lake.