Stone Contractors Destroy Volta Environment

The virtual absence of supervision over stone quarrying and sand winning in the Volta region has exposed the entire region to such degradation that the slightest seismic activity is likely to have untold consequences for the nation.

And at a time when it is estimated that about 20 new houses spring up in the nation's capital every day, one is prompted to wonder whether all the stones, gravel and sand that go into these huge constructional works have been systematically quarried or randomly fetched to suit the convenience of the day.

Putting the Volta region in focus, there is nothing to show at the moment that any governmental body has shown concern, let alone made any effort, in the last couple of decades to give matters of degradation any serious consideration.

A four-week Chronicle environmental survey conducted across the region indicates that no district can claim to be environmentally friendly.

One would have thought that lessons could have been learnt long before now from the activities of foreign companies in the region; a typical example being the Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company of Oak Brook, Illinois, USA.

The company is undertaking the $84m Keta Sea Defence Project in order to protect the land, reclaim about 200,000 hectares of flooded land and resettle entire communities.

Yet since December 1999, all the huge rocks used in constructing the seven groyns and revetments were quarried from a single source - Hevi.

Chronicle noted with awe during its rounds, the way giant haulage trucks journeyed the nearly 40km distance to the Akatsi district all these four years, for stones; in contrast to what pertains in nearby districts.

Shockingly, even Keta, which is being saved from submerging, is guilty of this "offence".

In spite of the fact that over three-quarters of the total land area lies below sea level, sand winning takes place at random, which sometimes lead to communal brawl in the area.

In the Hohoe district, what landlords simply do is give monies to contractors to get the materials for them, no matter the source.

While some throng the banks of the river Dayi in Kpando district, others dash to Lolobi and Wegbe areas. In fact people even win sand by the roadside with impunity.

Ho, the regional capital, is no better.

The stretch of land from the Medical Village, through stadium to the polytechnic is daily lined with men and women cracking stones (for a living though) while the authorities look on helplessly.

At the moment, all the silt at Sokode, Bame and Akroful, which is good for groundnut cultivation, has been invaded by contractors.

The assembly imposed a token ?100,000 and ?60,000 levy on stone and sand contractors respectively each year and that is the end of the matter.

A 15-member Environmental Management/Water and Sanitation sub-committee, headed by Prosper Delali-Fu, seems not to be functioning.

Chronicle was reliably informed from assembly sources that the sub-committee, for the first time since its inauguration about a year ago, met on Tuesday, May 6, this year.

This development is definitely not healthy and the other districts have no better story to tell.

An official at the regional office of Town and Country Planning told this paper that the outfit can do little about the situation since various districts have been given decentralized powers to look around for sand and stones.

On his part, the Keta DCE, Mr. Emmanuel Kwame Vorkeh, condemned the practice and called for the enforcement of existing laws to bring sanity into the system.

Environment-conscious people in the region feel that in the light of the recent tremor that hit some parts of the Greater Accra region, all districts should be compelled to enforce laws and prosecute those who willfully degrade the environment.