The Greater Accra Regional Security Council (REGSEC) has served a 21-day notice on many beachfront night clubs, eateries and other hospitality facilities at Laboma Beach in the La Dadekotopon Municipal Assembly to vacate the buffer zones or face forcible removal.
The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Linda Ocloo, who led the REGSEC team to serve the notices yesterday, said the affected facilities had been built in areas meant to serve as buffer zones for the Kpeshie Lagoon, and that their continued presence was worsening flooding in the area.
The facilities affected include Pink Flamingo, ULA Beach Club, Trophy, Bliss Escape, Amsterdam Kitchen, Si Beach Resort and Alora Beach Resort.
Earlier Warnings
Mrs Ocloo said some of the developers had been cautioned at the foundation stage of their projects, but had defied the warnings and gone ahead with construction.
"Some of the buildings here, when they were at their early stages, we asked the owners not to continue, but they still went ahead.
"People sometimes just push us and call you all kinds of names.
At the end of the day, I am not even sure the encroachers even have permits," she said.
She said the 21-day notice required occupants to demolish the structures themselves, failing which REGSEC would carry out the demolition and recover the cost from the owners.
The Regional Minister warned that persons who resisted the exercise risked arrest.
Compliance
The minister revealed that some assembly staff had previously been unable to enforce compliance because they were often overpowered on site.
"You leave in the morning, and at night you come and they have raised the structures, and people here are very armed, and sometimes the assembly is handicapped, so they are unable to do much," she said.
Mrs Ocloo said the 48 Engineer Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces, together with a flood task force, had taken over the exercise, with REGSEC providing support to help to reclaim the buffer zone.
She added that the team would assess the site to determine the extent of encroachment and identify which structures fell within the buffer zone, an area meant to allow water to settle and gradually flow into the sea.
She said the Ghana Hydrological Authority would further assess the level of encroachment on the Kpeshie Lagoon and its buffer zones in order to create adequate space for water storage during the rainy season.
"We cannot sit aloof to lose the wetlands," she said.
Coordinator
The Political Coordinator for the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council, Anthony Nukpenu, said government would create space at the water retention area and along a heavily silted path, and had accordingly given notice to occupants of buildings sitting directly within the waterway to begin removing their properties ahead of dredging works.
He said boulders obstructing the waterway would also be removed, adding that the flooding recorded in June occurred partly because water could not flow through the back end of a bridge in the area.
Mr Nukpenu said the Lands Commission had not rezoned the area into a residential or recreational facility, insisting that the site remained a lagoon.