Danger as developers take over basin designed to contain flood water

Danger looms as the Ramsar basin designed to receive huge volumes of water after rainfall in Accra, is being filled up with sand by private developers. The Engineering Council of Ghana is therefore waning serious flooding in Accra if the basin is blocked. The Ramsar site is situated about one kilometre away from the Mallam market in Accra. It is a conservation area designed to hold volumes of water from the Lafa basin also within the same location. Private developers have encroached upon the area and are undertaking vigorous activities in the reserve thereby filling up the basin. Beauty Dotse, a resident who lives in Otopja an adjoining community told TV3 “we live in fear because of the heavy flooding that is expected in June. We don’t know who the private developer is and we also don’t have the courage to tell them to stop. They have virtually filled the basin with sand”. Another resident Samuel Awuku also said, “For some time now we see a lot of tipper trucks come in and go. I think they are doing a major work in that basin. Indeed they are filling the basin with sand and that will certainly cause massive flooding”. Surprisingly, tipper trucks cart sand from the marine drive project site behind the Art Center and transport it all the way to Mallam area where it is used to fill the drain. With the rains expected in June, the engineering council is warning government to stop the developers. According to the Registrar of the council, Mr. Wise Ametefe, the government must stop these developers because what they are doing is dangerous to the environment. He also charged the assembly to stop the encroachment within the ramsar basin enclave because it was designed specifically to contain heavy rains. Coincidentally, the Accra metropolitan assembly in 2010 demolished three buildings because they were too close to the site but eight years later, countless structures have sprung up within the same area. By Richard bright Addo |TV3| editors.3news.com