Let?s Sanitize Demolition Of Structures To Avoid Catastrophe
By Alhaji Alhasan Abdulai
It is no secret that unauthorized buildings, kiosks and market stalls are allowed to spring up in Accra and parts of the country daily. It is also true that some of those who are responsible for those edifices have been found out and are being ordered by our law courts to remove them from the locations concerned. However of late actions taken on some structures, built many years ago at the full glare of city authorities are drastic and unreasonable.? Most of the home owners claim they?? acquired the plots in question from persons who claimed ownership of them. Litigations on them have often proved otherwise with the landlords becoming victims of circumstances. ?They often lose their money and the plots of land. ????Currently large numbers of some of those houses belonging to public servants and individuals have been demolished in Accra Takoradi, Tamale and Tema. ?The affected persons have added to the large army of homeless people in Ghana.? ?Attempts by National Disaster Management Organization NADMO to assist the victims of demolitions with tents to lay their heads especially in Tema have proved difficult. They are driven away from where they seek shelter by the city authorities.
Recently 500 hundred buildings were said to have been demolished in Tema alone. But The Tema Development Corporation (TDC) has denied reports in the media that it demolished 500 structures in the recent demolition exercise it carried out at Adjei Kojo, near Ashaiman in the Tema West Constituency.? Whatever the number of houses involved they are enough to affect many people.
In Kumasi over 300 structures belonging to traders were pulled down under police and military supervision at dawn last Sunday.
Properties worth millions of cedis were destroyed when bulldozers razed stores and other structures, leaving traders in distress.
Victims of the exercise say they were not served any notice, insisting that the matter is before court. The Kumasi City authorities who did not approve of the demolition exercise are doubtful over claims by the owners of the plot that the demolition had been ordered by court.
Over 500 structures belonging to mechanics and artisans operating at Tanokrom Kokompe, near the Takoradi Jubilee Park were also ?demolished.
This was during an exercise by a joint police and military team to clear the land which had allegedly been acquired by a private foreign investor for the construction of a shopping mall.
DAILY GUIDE gathered that a South African company, Western Development Consortium Limited (WDCL), has purchased the 22-acre land at Tanokrom to develop it into a shopping mall and other ventures.
In all that happened as a result of the demolitions many families and individuals who occupying the buildings and ?considered as squatters ?have been rendered homeless.? As homeless people they would definitely go out there looking for family homes or kiosks to perch since they might not? ?afford to rent houses immediately. Those of them?? who happen to land on rental units might find them to be expensive.??? What is painful is that mortgage ??loans they contracted to put up ?the buildings that got demolished would have to be serviced by them at huge costs.
Many Ghanaians across the political divide are against persons who build houses, kiosks ?and markets on plots of lands that are not properly acquired. However they abhor the situation where ?people ?are forcibly thrown out of those homes drastically with the assistance of the military and the police. Instead of demolishing homes built with hard cash the affected people ?must be given the opportunity to occupy those houses after being asked to pay compensation on them. Instead of punishing the encroachers investigation must be conducted to apprehend those who sell the plots of land to them. Those who acquire lands in dispute must not be punished for doing so.
Come to think of this currently the nation has a 1.7 million housing deficit. According to the Minister of Water Resources Works and Housing Alhaji Collins Dauda, the nation requires 85,000 houses per year without which many people would remain homeless. The rental units offered by landlords are expensive especially because of the huge rent advances demanded by landlords
In view of these precarious situations we find ourselves many are those who feel the continued demolition exercises constitute sabotage against the state.
The Tamale North Constituency Chairman of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alhaji Osman Musah has stated that the recent demolition exercises in some parts of the country were intended to sabotage the current Mahama administration.
He feels?? that if the NDC fails to stop the demolition of the property of residents, it would negatively affect the fortunes of the party in 2016.
He wondered why such demolition exercises did not take place during the tenure of former Presidents Kufuor and John Evans Mills.
This, according to him, was a clear manifestation of the disruption of the activities of the current administration and appealed to the government to halt such inhumane demolition exercises.
Much as those engaged in the demolition exercises feel they are engaged in legitimate exercises they are required to carry out their activities with human face. Indeed not with military precision as though we are engaged in war. Those in charge of the city must first ensure that only authorized buildings are constructed to avoid people encroaching on lands that do not belong to them.? This way Ghana would be spared the trouble of houses being pulled down to render many innocent people homeless.
Providing housing to the people is the responsibility of government
The government must therefore take a hard look at the problem of homelessness generally especially resulting from houses being demolished in the country. ?A special program must be introduced to facilitate housing provision for the people especially those who lose homes through circumstances beyond their control. Let?s ?takes steps to end demolitions, for the exercise if not controlled and sanitized ?would not only render people homeless it would lead to many of the victims such as pensioners widows and the aged ??getting traumatized and dying before their time
Executive director
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EANFOWORLD FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
0244 370345/ 0264370345/0208844791?????? [email protected]/[email protected]
