Demolish illegal structures on Sakumono Ramsar site; Nungua chief appeals to govt
The Paramount Chief of the Nungua Traditional Area, Odehe Kpakpa King Odaifio Welentsi III, has deplored the high level of encroachment on the Sakumono Ramsar Site and called on the government to pull down all illegal structures on the site.
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That, he said, was to ensure that the land was used for its intended purpose for which the government signed the international treaty of the Ramsar Convention.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, King Welentsi said the massive encroachment on the site, along the Sakumono-Tema beach road, was worrying, and demanded an immediate action.
“We are very worried about the massive encroachment with impunity and its attendant effect on the Sakumono Ramsar Site,” he said.
“We have on a number of occasions called on the authorities to do the proper thing and stop the sale of lands at the site but to no avail,” he added.
The government, he said, in 1952 acquired a large tract of land from the chiefs of Tema, Kpone and Nungua for the construction of the Tema Harbour and township.
King Welentsi said afterwards, the government released all that stretch of land to the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) to hold in trust for the government and also to develop residential facilities befitting the status of a port city.
According to him, TDC also released a portion of the land surrounding the Sakumono Lagoon, measuring 1,365 hectares, to the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission, when the government ratified the international treaty of Ramsar Convention on wetlands to protect the lands.
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However, he said, it appeared the Wildlife Division lacked the capacity to protect the site, thereby allowing unscrupulous people to encroach on it with impunity.
“We are therefore appealing to the government to demonstrate to us and Ghana as a whole, its commitment to the Ramsar agreement by removing all illegal structures on the Sakumono Ramsar Site and restoring its original natural value or come back to the stool to discuss a change of usage of the site,” he said.