Government halts removal of illegal buildings at Sakumo Ramsar Site
The government has changed its mind about tearing down buildings that were built without a permit in the Sakumo Ramsar site’s main area.
Following the earlier removal of fence barriers in the site’s core zones in October of this year, the Greater Accra Regional Security Council was slated to destroy all buildings on the Ramsar site.
To enable the second stage of the destruction, a crew was sent to count the number of dwellings that had been erroneously built on the Sakumo Ramsar site.
However, Henry Quartey, the regional minister, stated at a stakeholder meeting on Sunday that steps have instead been taken to have the structures regularized.
“I want to say here and now that not a single building will be demolished,” he said to some applause.
“We will go through some processes of discussions, and we will have this kind of meeting again in about three weeks’ time by which time we would have had a clear road map,” the minister added.
The choice was made a few weeks after the Regional Security Council finished tearing down the perimeter walls of the Ramsar site as part of phase one of the demolition exercise.
Over time, the Sakumor Ramsar site has seen encroachment, resulting in floods at the smallest amount of precipitation in Ashaiman, Tema, and other nearby communities.
The site consists of a coastal brackish-saline lagoon and the surrounding floodplains, freshwater marsh, coastal savannah grasslands with dense vegetation, and a short sand dune link to the sea.
