Beneath the placid waters of Lake Volta, the shadow of death lurks in a jungle of submerged trees, where countless boats have capsized and scores of fishermen have drowned. The boats of Lake Volta have chilling names: "Judgment Day" and "Deliver Us from Evil."
But as they mend their nets on the shore, the fishermen of Africa's biggest artificial lake debate whether a former Canadian prime minister might be the one to deliver them from the evil of poverty and the threat of death.
They've barely heard of Canada, and they know little about Joe Clark. They know a lot, however, about his controversial business venture to make profits by harvesting millions of submerged trees in this 3,280-square-mile lake. Each of the submerged ebony, teak, mahogany and other tropical hardwood trees could be worth $1,350 or more, their value preserved by the lack of oxygen in the lake water.
The fishermen of Lake Volta, however, are not yet convinced that Clark is the man to save them. "If they cut down the trees, the fish will go away," one fisherman says. "It's no good for us."
The submerged trees, their dead branches still poking spookily through the surface of the lake, are both a blessing and a curse to the people of eastern Ghana.
Some fishermen swim down to attach bamboo traps to the sunken trees, where fish are attracted by food particles on the branches. They worry that Clark's business venture will destroy their fishing places and jeopardize their livelihoods. Others see the submerged trees as a hindrance to their fishing nets and a menace to their boats. They know the death toll: More than 300 people have drowned when their boats rammed into the hidden trees. They want Clark to hurry up and start his project.
Three decades after becoming Canada's youngest prime minister, Clark still sees himself as a pioneer -- this time in sustainable development in Africa.
Clark is confident that his logging project is good for the fishermen, good for the environment, good for everyone else, too.
"We were obviously interested in something that would be profitable," he said in a phone interview from his summer home in Western Quebec, "but I think there's a growing interest in development in Africa that goes beyond an economic bottom line."
It's a bizarre-sounding project, conjuring up images of scuba divers with chain saws (although most of the trees will be harvested with remote-controlled mechanical arms). But many analysts say it makes environmental and financial sense.
Clark, now a 70-year-old academic and entrepreneur with a passion for the developing world, has helped attract about $16 million in private investment to the project already, including a stake from Goldman Sachs, with a further $90 million likely to be invested over the course of the project. It's believed to be the biggest underwater logging project in the world, using technology that many skeptics doubted could ever succeed.
The fishermen have been hearing about the project for three years now, as it slowly moved through its environmental assessment. "We're just waiting for them to come and cut the trees soon," says Napoleon Agbomadzi, who earns about $200 a month from his small boat and fishing nets on Lake Volta.
"We want them to come soon," he says. "We hope they come tomorrow. Our nets get stuck in the trees and we don't get any fish. When they cut the trees, it will increase our fish harvest."
A few yards away, a poorer fisherman disagrees. "If they cut the trees, the fish will go away," says 25-year-old Emmanuel Zuta, who has no boat of his own and has to hire boats to take him to the trees, where he swims down to the underwater branches to attach his home-made bamboo traps.
"Most people here are against it," he says. "I'm happy that nothing has happened so far. I don't want them to come for the trees. We usually follow the trees to find the fish."
Another fisherman, 29-year-old Fofo Addo, is also worried by the project. "If the trees are gone, there will be no place for us to attach our traps," he said. "It's a lot easier to tie the trap to a tree."
The logging project has also sparked controversy among some of Ghana's environmentalists, including one who alleged that it will threaten the fishery and "drastically alter" the Lake Volta environment. Another said it would pose a "significant risk" to the lake's biodiversity and the "unique habitat conditions" that have evolved since the 1960s when the lake was created by a hydro dam that blocked rivers.
Clark insists the project is environmentally sound and believes it will create jobs and growth in a poor region of West Africa that rarely had such opportunities in the past.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Canadian clients may not use
Must credit Toronto Globe and Mail
(All currency U.S.)
Post new comment