Ghana would be the first country in Africa to use a modern technology to harvest underwater timber, Ghana News Agency reported Monday.

A contract agreement to make the project possible would be signed between Ghana and Canada on Thursday, February 23, the report said.

A statement by the Canadian High Commission in Accra on Monday, said the project would enhance the country's transportation safety and tourism on Lake Volta, develop new industries to recover submerged tress; and enhance fisheries and other local development opportunities.

It said the new technology was environmentally friendly for harvesting of flooded forests and could increase the overall value generated by such reservoirs.

"This exciting project opens up a vast area of opportunity where previously there was lost potential," the statement said.

It said with the leading edge Canadian underwater harvesting technology, the situation where the flooded timber had been lost as a result of created hydro reservoirs, would no longer exist.

The statement quoted Wayne Dunn, president of Clark Sustainable Resource (CSR) Development, Canada as saying that the project was time consuming to realize to full value, as Phase I of the project would focus on adapting the Canadian technology to tropical waters.

It said CSR Development was as a result of the shared vision of the founders, who believed that resource development should create social and financial value, while respecting and enhancing the environment.

Fundamental to the business strategy, the statement said, was the development of collaborative, multi-stakeholders relationship with local and international interests.

"We are excited to be working with the Volta River Authority, the Ministries of Energy, Harbor and Railways and believe that together, we can stimulate the creation of an important new industry in Ghana and Africa," it said.

Source: Xinhua