page_title: Lake Volta
section_title: Economy
hierarchical_section_title: Lake Volta / Economy
caption_attribution_description: English: Volta lake from the Santa Barbara Church- Akosombo
context_page_description: Lake Volta, the largest artificial reservoir in the world based on surface area, is contained behind the Akosombo Dam which generates a substantial amount of Ghana's electricity. It is completely within the country of Ghana and has a surface area of 8,502 square kilometres. It extends from Akosombo in the south to the northern part of the country.
context_section_description: The Akosombo Dam provides electricity for much of the country, as well as for export to Togo, Benin, and nearby countries, to earn foreign exchange. Lake Volta is also important for transportation, providing a waterway for both ferries and cargo watercraft. Since the huge lake lies in a tropical area, the water remains warm year-round naturally. Given good management, Lake Volta is the location of a vast population of fish and large fisheries.
  The lake also attracts tourism, and tourist cruises visit the island of Dodi.
  Recent developments include a large-scale enterprise to harvest submerged timber from the flooded forests under Lake Volta. This project harvests high-value tropical hardwood without requiring additional logging or destruction of existing forest and, according to Wayne Dunn, "could generate the largest source of environmentally sustainable natural tropical hardwood in the world." The Ghanaian-owned company Underwater Forest Resources has committed itself to making said lumber available in the global market, while Flooring Solutions Ghana have become the suppliers of hardwood floors, using the rare wood from the Lake. In addition to generating foreign currency for the region and reducing the dependence of locals on fishing as a primary economic activity, the removal of submerged trees is improving navigation on the lake and increasing safety.
  An estimated 7,000 to 10,000 children work in the fishing industry on Lake Volta. The nature of their employment has been described as slavery in The Guardian and by the CNN Freedom Project. This has been described as sensationalism by Betty Mensah and the academic Samuel Okyere since many of the children and youth whose wages are given upfront to their parents grow up to become self-sufficient fishermen in adulthood who in turn hire children themselves and could therefore also be characterized as apprentices. They conclude, that many children may suffer under exploitative work but are not enslaved.
caption: Panorama and landscape of Lake Volta in Ghana: Lake Volta is the largest reservoir by surface area in the world.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-W180", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image DateTime": "2009:05:11 06:17:03", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2254", "Image XPTitle": "[0, 0]", "Image XPSubject": "[32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, ... ]", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0]", "Image Padding": "[]", "Image OffsetSchema": "4188", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/400", "EXIF FNumber": "27/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Creative", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:05:11 06:17:03", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:05:11 06:17:03", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "55/16", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "31/5", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3648", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2736", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "1908"}