Legislators in Ghana’s Parliament have made a strong case for government to procure about 10,000 life jackets for communities along the Black Volta River in the Upper West Region following the drowning of seven Lawra SHS students on Saturday.

The lawmakers argued that most of the residents along the Black Volta River used canoes as a means of transport to their farms and that they needed life jackets to ensure their safety and security.

The members of Parliament (MPs) made the call when contributing to a statement made on the floor of Parliament by Mr Bede Ziedeng, the MP for Lawra, on Tuesday, June 17, following the drowning of seven Lawra SHS students.

The Lawra lawmaker, while delivering the statement, said he had personally procured 10 life jackets to assist the residents living along the Black Volta River to aid them to cross safely during daily routine activities.

He, however, appealed to the government to construct a bridge along the river for the safety and security of the residents.

The Lawra legislator described the tragic incident as “Black Saturday” in the lives of the residents of Lawra Municipality and the entire region.

“This is a wake up call for us to act now to avert future occurrence,” underscoring the need for the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) to urgently procure life jackets for communities along the river.

The lawmaker also urged NADMO to intensify public education on wearing of life jackets before crossing the river.

Mr Ziedeng entreated all students to avoid any behaviour that could endanger their lives.

The legislator expressed his condolences to the bereaved families and management of Lawra SHS.

The MPs observed a minute silence in honour of the seven Lawra Senior High School students who got drowned in the Black Volta, near Dikpe community in the Upper West Region on Saturday, June 14, 2025.

The deceased were part of a group of 16 students from Lawra SHS cadet corps, who were on a routine morning jogging exercise, but 10 of them decided to cross the river on a boat to the Burkina Faso side of the river.

Unfortunately, upon getting to the middle of the river, water swamped into the boat and in the process it capsized, leading to the drowning of seven out of the 10 students onboard.

Meanwhile, the Minister of the Interior, Alhaji Mohammed Muntaka  Mubarak is scheduled to appear before Parliament next week to answer questions on measures government is putting in place to procure life jackets for residents along the Black Volta River.

Black Volta tragedy: Seven SHS students drown, five retrieved, two missing

Published on: Jun 15, 2025 at 13:10

Seven students of the Lawra Senior High School (SHS) are reported to have drowned in the Black Volta River near Dikpe community in the Lawra Municipality in the early hours of Saturday, June 14, 2025.

Five out of the seven bodies had been retrieved from the river, confirmed dead and deposited at the Lawra Municipal Hospital mortuary for preservation and autopsy.

Mr Abdul Latif Osman, the Upper West Regional Director of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), confirmed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Lawra at the weekend.

He said the search was still underway to recover the remaining two bodies from the river.

He indicated that the incident happened between 0700 Hours and 0800 Hours on Saturday when about 15 cadet members of the school undertook their ritual jogging to the Black Volta River to cross to the Burkina Faso side of the river.

Mr Osman said reports indicated that it had been a ritual activity of the cadet members of the school to cross the Black Volta River and return but this time they used a different route for their exercise.

He said upon reaching the river site, they spotted a young man of a Burkinabe descent with a canoe at the Burkina Faso side of the river, so they called him to transport them across the river.

According to Mr Latif, 10 students out of the 15 boarded the canoe with the operator making eleven people onboard though the canoe was designed to carry less than ten people.

Along the journey the canoe capsized and all the 11 people onboard fell into the river.

Three students, two females and a male as well as the operator swam ashore while the seven others could not be found and the incident was reported to the Dikpe community elders.

The NADMO Director reported that when the community elders arrived at the scene, they had to perform some rituals before they could search for those missing in the water.

The search, therefore started between 1000 Hours and 1100 Hours and within an hour, the five bodies were recovered.

Meanwhile, Mr Latif told the GNA that the canoe had also been retrieved but the operator had escaped.

The Upper West Regional and Lawra Municipal Directors of Education, members of the Lawra District Security Committee (DISEC) and management of the Lawra SHS were at the accident scene.

A similar incident occurred in 2008 and a student of the Lawra SHS drowned in the Black Volta River when Members of the Geography Club of the school went on an excursion to the river.