Joint task force demolishes illegal structures at Sakumo Ramsar site

More illegal structures within the Sakumo Ramsar site in Tema have been demolished. 

The exercise was carried out yesterday by the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) Ghana Ltd, in collaboration with the National Investigation Bureau and National Security.

The exercise took place at Klagon, in the Tema West Municipality and Community 10, in the Tema Metropolis in the Greater Accra Region.

The illegal structures were sited on part of the Sakumo Lagoon buffer, where the land had been filled for construction purposes, narrowing the watercourse in the process.

The Managing Director of TDC Ghana Ltd, Courage Nunekpeku, told the media that the demolition exercise was part of efforts to reclaim encroached state lands and also protect the Ramsar site from further encroachment.

He said despite notices served on the illegal occupants at the site, they remained recalcitrant, hence the decision to pull down the structures.

Some demolished structures

Mr Nunekpeku added that efforts to stop the encroachers had been met with resistance, with some threatening to use their “connections” with high authorities to continue with the encroachment.

"They know what they are doing is wrong but they encroach and come back to us later to regularise it.

They start with fence walls, and if you allow them to build, they come back to you to regularise it.

“When it gets to a stage you want to pull down somebody's building, you know the outcry that we will face.

So the earlier we stop this thing now at the fence wall level, the better for all of us," he said.

Mr Nunekpeku said unlike in the past, his administration was determined to sustain the demolition exercise by constantly keeping an eye on the site to ensure enforcement of the laws. 

The Managing Director further said that neither the TDC, the TMA nor the Tema West Municipal Assembly had issued building permits to anyone to put up structures within the site and, therefore, ordered an immediate end to the illegal development on the site.

A member of the Nungua Traditional Council, Nii Otsedwen Ashong Bortier II, who is also the Borkwei We Jaasetse, Nungua, appealed to the management of TDC to go easy on the enchroachers.

He said previous attempts to dialogue with former Greater Accra Regional Ministers, Henry Quartey and Daniel Titus Glover, respectively, on the matter were not successful.

The chief pledged the readiness of the traditional council to collaborate with the authority to discuss the way forward.