Asenso-Boakye halts construction on Kpeshie Lagoon ahead of rainy season

The Minister for Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye, has directed the Ledzokuku Municipal Assembly to take immediate steps to immediately stop ongoing building construction works by some private developers on the Kpeshie Lagoon Wetlands in Teshie, a suburb of Accra, ahead of the raining seasons.

This came to light when the minister, accompanied by officials of the ministry, the Hydrological Services Authority, and some Municipal Assemblies representatives within the Greater Accra Region, embarked on a working visit to inspect progress of ongoing drainage works in selected flood prone areas in the city.

The visit was also to assess the readiness of the completed drainage infrastructure ahead of the rainy season.

The Kpeshie Lagoon Wetlands, the Kordjor River - all in the Ledzokuku Municipal Assembly, as well as La Dade-Kotopong, where parts of the buffer is, had heavy building constructions by private developers, ongoing, including Messrs RA CONGLOMERATE, operating without the appropriate building permits.

The company had also eventually filled the reserved buffer, which is meant to hold excess volumes of water flow during heavy rains.

In recent times, several illegal structures, comprising of residential buildings, as well as heavy encroachment by developers in some notable wetlands, have conspired to thwart the investments of the government in its efforts to provide drainage infrastructure across the country.

Orders of the president

This unfortunate development caused the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to issue directives to all Metropolitan, Municipal and Assemblies to pull down structures that are illegally sited on waterways and in wetlands.

He has therefore called on the Assemblies under whose jurisdictions the illegal constructions are taking place, to take the necessary steps to comply with the directives of the president, and demolish structures that have been erected within wetlands or in waterways, and thereby, further exposing the city to the devastation of perennial flooding.

The sector minister expressed shock at the rate at which the Kpeshie Lagoon Wetlands and its buffer reserve areas are blatantly being filled with construction materials by private developers.

Francis Asenso-Boakye reminded the Assemblies of the directives of the president to pull down structures that are illegally cited within or on the way of wetlands or waterways, and with the tendency to contribute to the perennial flooding in the country.

“It is unfortunate that despite the heavy investment in drainage infrastructure over the years, irresponsible behavior of private developers continue to expose the city, especially in areas, which hitherto, were not noted for flooding,” the minister stated.

The sector minister said the power to embark on a demolition exercise on the illegal structures lies within the Assemblies and therefore, called on them to act swiftly to avert flood-related disasters with the onset of the rainy season.

Commenting on the need to demolish structures built on waterways and in wetlands, the MCE for La Dade-Kotopon, Solomon Kotey Nikoi, where the Kpeshie Lagoon buffer is, said “the Assembly’s efforts to stop the building of illegal structures have become a challenge that need the urgent intervention of its supervising Ministry. Efforts to stop, demolish, and arrest culprits have been met with assaults by landguards and death threats.”

He suggested that the government constitutes a national taskforce to deal with the menace of encroachment in wetlands.

On the security challenge, the works and housing minister assured of his readiness to engage his senior colleague at the local government ministry to solicit the support of security authorities to deal with private developers who are bent on thwarting the efforts of the government, with blatant disregard for the laws, towards the flooding menace.