A man believed to be in his early 40s has drowned in a pit created through operations of Seven Seas Salt Limited on the Keta Lagoon around Tokor, Ketu South.
The deceased, identified only as Efo Korbla, fell into the pit while he reportedly went fishing Wednesday morning near dikes being constructed in the lagoon for the operations of the salt mining company.
Mr Victor Ayaku, the Assembly member for the area, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said Efo Korbla reportedly fell in the lagoon around 0800 hours and after two hours of search, his body was retrieved.
He decried the disaster which, he said, could have been avoided had the salt mining company provided any sign around their dikes to warn unsuspecting people/fishers of the deep pit created as a result of the ongoing construction work.
“The deceased had just come to live in the area recently and might not have been aware of the pit around the dikes. It is so because we’re in the rainy season and so it’s difficult for anyone, especially a new person in the area, to be able to detect something like that.
There’s no form of protection around the dikes, no demarcation. It’s almost like a death trap,” he said.
Mr Adams Mensah, the Public Relations Officer, Seven Seas Salt Limited, in a reaction, described the death of Efo Korbla as unfortunate, saying, the setting in of the rains had stalled the dikes construction.
He advised fishers or people intending to go fishing in the lagoon through various means without using canoes to first test the depth of the water using sticks, especially in areas the company, had a concession to avoid unforeseen situations.
Mr Mensah assured of the company’s willingness to support such education to get to the people during the marine fishing closed season, where a lot more people had resorted to fishing in the lagoon and as well, provide any form of assistance the family of the deceased might require from them.
Meanwhile, the Police have since sent the retrieved body to the Ketu South Municipal Hospital morgue for preservation.
