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December, 2015 News
VRA Mourns Hans Hein
The Volta River Authority has held a remembrance service for the late Hans Wolfgang Hein, formerly of the Marine Services Unit (SMU) of the Environment and Sustainable Development Department.
The service which was attended by family and friends of the late Hans Hein including Former President Jerry John Rawlings at the Maritime Club in Akosombo was to honour his memory.
The late Hans was born on April 17, 1943 in Kunzendorf (originally in Germany, now located in the Czech Republic as a result of the second World War).
Under the aegis of the Volta River Authority (VRA), GOPA was contracted by the Volta Lake Transport Company Limited (VLTC, a subsidiary of the VRA) to rehabilitate some of VLTC’s ferries and for the design, construction and maintenance of additional ones. Hans Hein’s team was to carry out this contractual assignment.
Hans, through his Company, was later employed by the parent VRA after he had mooted the idea of a Maritime Services Unit to be established in the VRA, an idea which was supported by the management of the VRA led by the then Chief Executive, Louis Casely-Hayford of blessed memory.
Among the several vessels constructed or completely rehabilitated by the newly established Maritime Services Unit under Hans Hein were the M.V. Tilapia , the Executive Yacht (which had originally been slated to be scrapped by the VRA and is now called “Ohemaa”), M.V.Onipa Nua (the hospital ship which sailed around the villages along the lake with a team of medical personnel providing medical services), the popular 400-seater M.V. Dodi Princess cruise ship (which ran scheduled leisure cruises from Akosombo to Dodi Island for holiday makers complete with barbecue meals and live entertainment aboard), the M.V. Fourth Republic (for east- west ferrying of passengers and cargo at various crossing points on the lake)
His numerous achievements with the Volta River Authority and elsewhere attracted due recognition and he was therefore awarded a national honour, the Companion of the Volta by Former President Rawlings.
The late Hans Wolfgang Hein is survived with a wife Christine and three children Kathrin, Meike and Vivian.
Photographs taken at the Remembrance service
