The Greater Accra Regional Security Council (REGSEC) has commenced a demolition exercise at the Sakumo Ramsar site. The Regional Minister Henry Quartey, who chairs the REGSEC, in an address, noted that the aim is to ward off encroachers and prevent any possible flooding in the area. The exercise began around the Klagon area with fence walls put up to secure lands. “This is to target fence walls that have been erected within the core area. People are building in the water and the men here will for the next three days bring down all the fence walls in the water, after which buildings that are sited in the water will be marked for the exercise to continue”, he warned.
The demolition comes after a series of announcements by the government for persons erecting buildings on the site to desist from the act to help preserve the ecological state of the Ramsar Site. Ramsar sites are wetlands of international importance for migratory animal life, especially birds, under the Ramsar Convention.
The National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) was once seeking legal backing to demolish structures on waterways to avert flooding in urban areas.