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Two vessels operating on the Volta Lake have been equipped with an advanced navigation equipment to help curb water transport accidents.
The installation of the cutting-edge technology, supplied by a leading maritime technology company, Sternula, on the Volta and Buipe Queens, is designed to improve safety on the Volta Lake.
It is also expected to guide officials of the Volta Lake Transport Company Limited (VLTC) to improve safety on the lake, by helping to identify potential hazards through mapping, to help significantly reduce water transport accidents.
The installation was undertaken by the Danish Geodata Agency (DGA) in collaboration with the Danish Maritime Authority and their Ghanaian counterparts as part of the Ghana-Denmark Maritime Strategic Sector Cooperation (SSC).
A combination of crowd-sourced data and satellite images will help map out safe and navigable routes on the lake, enabling safer and more efficient journeys.
The technology is also expected to improve route planning that would help captains of ships to create more reliable routes, minimising delays and avoiding potentially dangerous areas.
Ultimately, it will help to present a map of safe routes on an online platform accessible to all local users of the lake and other stakeholders.
Officials of the Danish Embassy in Ghana believe that the initiative will pave the way for a lasting solution to navigation challenges faced by users of the lake.
The Maritime Sector Counsellor at the Embassy and Coordinator of the SSC, Sif Alberte Andersen, commended the collaboration between the Danish Geodata Agency (DGA) and the Volta Lake Transport Company Limited (VLTC), which had helped birth the project.
Ms Andersen said the installed technology leveraged crowd-sourced data collection, enabling a collection of data that could help enhance navigation safety and convenience on the lake, with the ultimate objective of reducing the occurrence of accidents.
The Director-General of the Danish Geodata Agency, Pia Dahl Højgaard, said that the Agency was excited to support the maritime collaboration, as the Danish Geodata Agency strove to use new technologies and data-driven workflows to improve the safety of navigation.
The Managing Director (MD) of VLTC, Rose Appiah Okyere, expressing her appreciation for this support, also said that the project held significant potential to enhance VLTC's operations on the Volta Lake, improving both passenger and cargo transportation services.
“We at VLTC welcome the opportunity to benefit from the agreement signed between Ghana and Denmark, and we see the collaboration as crucial, considering the vastness of the Volta Lake, with its 8,500 square kilometres of surface area and the absence of established navigation routes,” Mrs Okyere said.
The VLTC MD expressed the hope that the implementation of e-navigation technology would be instrumental in curbing accidents and enhancing safety on the lake.
