Weija demolition on hold until…

The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has suspended its planned demolition of unauthorised structures on its land at Weija in Accra.

The suspension on Thursday was to enable the GWCL to investigate complaints by some property owners that their houses earmarked for demolition were outside the company's land.

Consequently, surveyors of the GWCL have begun surveying the area for a possible demarcation, according to the Chief Public Relations Manager of the GWCL, Mr Michael Agyeman.

He recalled that some of the property owners whose houses were destroyed had also raised objection that their houses fell outside the property of the GWCL.

Therefore, Mr Agyeman said, this time round the company wanted to avoid any complaints during the demolition exercise.

"We (the GWCL) want to be sure that we do the right thing," he stressed.

Mr Agyeman would not say when the exercise would resume, and indicated that it would recommence after the investigations.

A 61-year-old retiree of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Ms. Victoria Quaye, whose house was affected during the demolition exercise, told the Daily Graphic that she had spent all her life savings to put up the building.

Besides, she said, she had contracted loans from the bank to complete the building with the hope that she would rent some of the rooms to offset her loan.

Ms. Quaye, who looked demoralized and described herself as a single parent, appealed to relevant authorities to consider her plight and assist her to rebuild the house.

The GWCL last Thursday destroyed houses it had demarcated as illegally sited on its land in the area.

The affected families looked on helplessly as their buildings were being destroyed. That was barely 72 hours after the announcement by a combined team of the police and military to reclaim land at the Weija Dam site from alleged squatters.

Supported by heavily armed national security officials, the GWCL had marked out about 2,000 buildings sited within the catchment area of the Weija Dam.