The West Akim Municipal Assembly has instituted a tax force to clamp down on land developers and property owners who build on waterways and in low lying areas.
According to the assembly, the continuous construction of houses and projects in waterways by land developers and residents is largely contributing to perennial floods in the municipality.
Last week a mother and her child were killed after a five-hour heavy downpour flooded and collapsed their building, displacing several other residents at Akanteng, Awaham, Kobriso, Ekoso and Brekumanso destroying thousands of properties all in the West Akim Municipality of the Eastern Region.
In an interview with Citi News after handing over of bags of rice, cooking oils, student mattresses to the victims, the Municipal Chief Executive Officer for West Akim, Seth Oduro Boadu said the Municipal task force would ensure strict adherence to planning and constructional warnings.
“Some days after the floods we visited the affected communities again to sympathize with them and encourage them because it is not their fault and we cannot also blame nature. We must be law-abiding as citizens and because we are concerned about the perennial floods I have tasked the engineers and planning officers at the assembly to do due diligence anytime people come to them for building permits.”
He said the team will assess new areas and conditions around before issuing the permit adding that “I have also asked them never to compromise and make sure residents build or construct their projects on suitable grounds and not on waterways to avoid what happened.”
Seth Oduro Boadu added, “we are now going to be regular on the grounds because we have set up a task-force with the National Disaster Management Organisation and go round so if we should see that someone is putting up a structure in a waterway or any illegal spot we will not wait for disasters to occur before we go in, we will put a stop to it. Again the taskforce will embark on an educational drive to educate the citizens on the hazards of putting up structures in waterways.”
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By: Neil Nii Amatey Kanarku/citinewsroom.com/Ghana