Lands Ministry to procure 30 more drones for surveying

The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources will, from July this year, procure at least 30 drones to be used for mapping and surveying in the country.

The sector Minister, Mr Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh, who made this known to the Daily Graphic in Accra last Tuesday, said the drones would be deployed to the 16 regions for effective land administration.

“Currently, we have only one drone, which was a donation from one of our partner organisations abroad, but we need more drones to help us do effective mapping and survey, track the activities of land guards and also reclaim encroached state lands.

“We will source for funds from the government in the mid-year budget and from our partners abroad to procure the drones, so that we can send at least one drone to each of the regions,” he said.

The minister, who spoke with the Daily Graphic following the inauguration of the Board of Governors of the Ghana School of Survey Mapping (GSSM), said the current manual system of mapping and surveying was not productive.

Drones for mapping

A drone survey refers to the use of a drone to capture aerial data with downward-facing cameras and sensors.

Surveying with a drone offers enormous potential to Geographic Information System (GIS) professionals.

With a drone, it is possible to carry out topographic surveys of the same quality as the highly accurate measurements collected by traditional methods, but in a fraction of the time.

Background

In the latter part of 2018, the Lands Commission said it was preparing to switch to the use of drone technology for land surveying, registration and cadastral works, after a pilot project beginning March 2019.

Ghana was among three countries in the world to benefit from the project, which was funded by Omidyar Network, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that supports land rights in developing countries.

It was implemented in Ghana, Columbia and The Philippines by Micro-Aerial Project Incorporation, a firm with expertise in drone technology.

As part of the project, some technical staff of the Lands Commission were to be trained in drone technology to boost mapping and surveying services in the country.

The project is expected to boost land reforms and ensure effective land administration.

Resource constraints

However, Mr Asomah-Cheremeh said resource constraints had made it difficult to procure more drones for mapping and surveying purposes.

“We are not well-resourced and so we need funds to procure more drones for efficient land administration. Some regions, such as Greater Accra, and cities, such as Kumasi and Takoradi, have critical land issues that can be properly managed through the use of drone technology,” the minister said.

He indicated that the Lands Ministry was committed to soliciting the needed resources to leverage technology to ensure that land reforms were implemented for effective land administration.