BECA Travels: Volta Lake

Volta Lake

The group working on the United video needed B-roll of Volta Lake, so that group accompanied a volunteer from Holland, who is working on a health survey of the Volta Region, to an island in the middle of Volta Lake.  I may have mentioned in earlier posts that Volta Lake was the largest man-made lake in the world – apparently a project of Kwame Nkrumah in the late 1950s – until the Chinese dammed the Yangze River.  Now Volta Lake is the second largest man-made lake in the world.  I went along on the shoot to see the lake.

Some of the people whose homes were flooded when the lake was built returned to the lake to make their home on one of the islands.  On the portion of the island we saw there was a community of probably 100 people.  They had built homes out of mud bricks and grass roofs.  We saw a lot of fishing nets and cages – a variation on lobster cages – to catch fish.  We also saw an open building, covered by a grass roof, but with no walls, that appeared to be a gathering place for the village, and there was a radio antenna at one end of that building.

Unfortunately, the power from the lake is not reliable, and resentment about the displacement of people remains 50 years later.  In addition, people use the lake for bathing, washing clothes, and as a toilet.  As a result, the lake is not clean, although some people use it for drinking water.  Regardless, we enjoyed the boat ride and the chance to see the lake.

Meanwhile, the other group did a shoot at a hospital and a second at the home of a mentally deficient young woman who is supported by HardtHaven.  In the course of their travels through the area, a father brought a four-year-old boy to see Edem because the child can neither stand nor talk, and the family doesn’t know what is wrong.  The group stopped by another household where a young boy who had lived for a while at HardtHaven lives.  Apparently, the boy’s mother disappeared, and the grandmother, who is taking care of the child, leaves him along for long periods.  Edem decided to take the child back to HardtHaven, so this child traveled back to the children’s home with the HardtHaven team.