C’ttee investigating looming danger at Weija – MP

A committee probing the risk of landslide and building collapse at Weija has tasked a consultant to examine and present a report to curb the problem, Member of Parliament (MP) for Bortianor/Ngleshie Amanfro Constituency Bright Demordzi has revealed.

According to him, the committee, which was set up by National Security to investigate the problem, has employed the services of experts currently working within the area to analyse and propose long-term solutions.

Some buildings in the area risk crumbling as sand mining and stone quarrying activities, coupled with erosion that results from torrential rains on the Akoasa Mountain in the constituency, have eaten away their foundations.

Continuous erosion from rainfall over the years has exposed the foundation of several buildings along the hill, leaving them in a precarious situation.

A geological engineer with the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) warned in 2013 that road users and people living along the mountain were in danger of being swallowed to death by a possible landslide beneath the mountain.

Class FM’s Ridwan Karim Dini Osman, who visited the area on Tuesday June 7, as part of the Executive Breakfast Show’s Waiting Disaster series, reported that up the hill, the adverse effects of sand mining and quarrying were visible, with gullies on top of the hill left as remnants, while a number of buildings had the soil at their foundation washed away. “Anytime it rains, the erosion situation worsens and you can see the foundation of almost all the buildings. It looks like the buildings are just suspended up on the hill,” Ridwan reported.

Another worrying situation is the washing off of soil and stone particles onto the road each time it rains, “causing serious flooding, which makes certain parts of the area inaccessible to motorists”.

Most of the roads connecting the vicinity are tortuous and drivers spend hours in traffic when the roads get blocked by sand.

According to the MP, the experts “will review the topography and conduct research on the erosion along the whole stretch of the mountain holistically”.

He further explained that as a temporary measure “a grader and an excavator have been stationed in the vicinity to clear the huge volumes of debris and sand deposited on the road”.

The MP, however, failed to provide timelines on the project as he explained that until the consultants finished their work, nothing could be done in relation to the over 50 buildings at risk of collapse.