According to a private legal practitioner, Mr Kwame Jantuah, students who must cross rivers to get to school should be taught how to swim. According to him, doing this will stop fatalities from occurring in boating accidents.
“Isn’t it a good thing to teach the pupils how to swim?” he asked on the Big Issue on TV3 Friday, May 12.
He made the call barely 24 hours after Tru News Report reported that nine children from the island settlement of Faanaa, in Accra, drowned on their way home from school, according to reports.
After a boat carrying students capsized at Faana in the Weija Gbawe municipality of Accra on May 10, a rescue operation by the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) resulted in the recovery of the bodies from the Weija dam.
The death toll from the boat disaster rose to nine on Thursday, May 11, 2023. The Assemblyman for the area, McCarthy South, Clement Agyi, was quoted on Citinewsroom.com as claiming that the tragedy took place at approximately 5 p.m. while the children were on their way home from school.
Accounts of what happened just before the boat sank are unclear. Weija Dam leakage and floods are both mentioned as possible causes by locals. Twelve people, including the boat’s owner, were on board when the incident occurred, and nine of them died, as reported by myjoyonline.com.
Only three individuals were able to swim to safety, and the body of a missing child wasn’t found until Thursday morning.
According to reports, the police have asked for the assistance of the parents of the victims in identifying their children, and the corpses of the deceased have been sent to the Accra mortuary of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital for preservation.
The owner of the boat that capsized was allegedly picked up by police to help with their investigation.
It has been established that only three pupils survived the accident.
