The TDC Ghana Limited, in a bid to protect the Sakumo Ramsar site and prevent flooding, has carried out a demolition exercise, breaking down unauthorised fence walls erected by developers into the site.
The stretching fence wall extended from Klagon towards Tema; a situation, the Managing Director of TDC, Courage Nunekpeku, said, was worrying.
He indicated that if it were allowed to continue, it would lead to flooding in Tema, the motorway, and other areas during the rainy season.
The Sakumo Ramsar Site, located along the Tema-Accra beach road and separated from the sea by a rail line and road, is a wetland of international importance, originally covering an area of 1,400 hectares in the Tema West Municipality.
The Sakumo Lagoon, which was proposed as a Ramsar Site in 1987, carries flood water from upstream, including some parts of the Eastern Region, into the sea and serves as a fishing area for fishers, as well as a home to many migratory birds.
Leading the demolishing exercise, Mr Nunekpeku said, “It is so terrible that if you don’t act quickly, we are in for trouble to the extent that when you take a drone view, you will see that the Ramsar site has been entirely encroached. They are narrowing it respectively from the Tema and the Klagon sides”.
He explained that if developers were allowed to narrow the opening of the Ramsar Site, floodwaters would not have a place to flow into the sea; therefore, the TDC’s resolve was to stop such activities within the core areas.
He explained that “at the buffer area – we have allowed some leverage – but the core area, where we said that nobody should come around there, we will not allow, because once you close the core area, the water will not have a place to flow when it rains, but you can see what is going on; they are seriously working day and night to just take over the entire Ramsar Site.”
Mr Nunekpeku added that “this is a wall crossing to Tema; when it was allowed, it means that we have lost it entirely. It is not about TDC being aggressive to demolish, no, we want to protect the area and the citizens; we won’t wait for the rains to come in for floods to occur before we act”.
Further, they had already engaged the developer and tried educating them on the consequences of their actions; it was evident that they were adamant and recalcitrant; therefore, it was important for the company to use force to protect the area, he said.
He said they would always monitor the site, but it was costly and dangerous to do so at night, as they would have to send a whole team.
“The only option is to keep your eye on it, and consistently, as they build, we pull it down, and subsequently, we hope they will relent and this whole thing will stop,” he said.
He further stated that they would return for similar actions heavily and very ruthlessly, stressing that none of the structures being constructed at the Ramsar Site have been granted a permit by the Tema West Municipal Assembly or the Tema Metropolitan Assembly of the TDC.
He emphasised that “they did it and quickly put themselves together and formed an association calling themselves the Ramsar Site to be Regularised Association. So, it means they know what they are doing; they know it is wrong, but they encroach on it and come back to you to regularise.”
Mr Nunekpeku stressed that, being responsible for the enclave, he could not sit down and throw his hands in the air to allow such developments to continue and promised to sustain the demolishing exercise.
He said they were willing to engage the traditional leaders of Nungua, some of whom had sold portions of the site to developers, to find a lasting solution to the issue.
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