Members of Parliament on Tuesday observed a minute silence in honour of the seven Lawra Senior High School (SHS) students who 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.
Delivering a statement on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday, Mr Bede Ziedeng, Member of Parliament for Lawra, expressed his condolences to the bereaved families and management of Lawra SHS.
The legislator said he had personally procured 10 live jackets to assist the people living along the river to cross the river safely.
He, however, appealed to the government to construct a bridge along the river for the safety and security of the communities along the Black Volta River.
The Lawra legislator described the tragic incident as “Black Saturday” in the lives of the residents of Lawra Municipality.
“This is a wakeup call for us to act now to avert future occurrence,” underscoring the need for the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) to urgently procure about 1,000 live jackets for communities along the river.
The lawmaker also urged NADMO to intensify public education on the need to wear life jackets before crossing the river.
GNA
