AMA to decongest the city of illegal structures

Mr. Stanley Adjiri-Blankson, Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), on Tuesday announced that the Assembly would carry out another decongestion exercise to remove all illegal structures from the metropolis.

The AMA boss has therefore directed all sub-metros to resubmit the list of unauthorized structures that have been built on the waterways for action to be taken against them during the exercise.

Mr. Adjiri-Blankson announced this during an emergency meeting of the Assembly on the recent floods in parts of Accra and the Pedestrian Shopping Mall at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle.

The meeting brought together AMA building inspectors, chairpersons of sub-metros, directors of sub-metros, surveyors and demolition task force to deliberate on measures to curtail future flooding and enforcement of the Assembly's by-laws and the removal of unauthorized structures in the metropolis.

Mr. Adjiri-Blankson denied reports that the Pedestrian Shopping Mall at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle was sited at a flood prone area thus making hawkers to attempt to return to the pavements.

He said what was normally shown or reported in the media was only one-eighth of the market and therefore did not tell the whole story about the Mall.

The Accra Mayor also called for swift and decisive measures to remove fitting shops and vehicles parked on roadsides from unauthorized locations as well as the removal of unauthorized structures built on waterways.

"I think it is about time the Assembly bites hard on illegal developers on water courses."

He said the Assembly was going to reshuffle the various building inspectors in the sub-metros for them to be efficient and not compromise their work.

The Mayor warned the building inspectors to desist from collecting bribes from illegal developers since the Assembly would deal with them ruthlessly.

"If some of you have gone to collect money from people to allow them to build at unauthorized places you should go back quietly and give their money to them because if the Assembly gets to know you will be handed over to the police."

Mr. Adjiri-Blankson stated that a major problem facing the Assembly was the sachet water plastic, adding' "Yet, ever since the problem started the producers had remained silent and not bothered to care about the nuisance they have created."

He cited South Africa and Tanzania as some of the countries in Africa that had banned the sachet water and polythene bags because of its harmful effects on the environment and the blockage of the drains.

Source: GNA