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Ghana demolishes homes in bid to fight worsening flooding

by Suleiman Mustapha | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Monday, 4 October 2010 10:05 GMT

By Suleiman Mustapha

ACCRA, Ghana (AlertNet) Â? Hundreds of families in the Ghanaian capital have been forced to leave their homes over the past year as the government demolishes structures built on waterways in a bid to avert perennial deadly floods.

Ghanaian authorities, struggling to tackle worsening seasonal flooding that wreaks havoc in Accra and beyond, believe the sprawling settlements built on and around drainage channels and waterways are exacerbating the flooding.

Clearing the land is the only long-term solution, they say.

But the demolitions have angered local residents who complain authorities are not giving property owners sufficient warning or compensation.

Human rights advocates, meanwhile, have questioned whether the forced evictions violate international human rights laws.

The controversial demolition program points to the problems authorities around the world may face as they attempt to deal with the mounting effects of climate change, including more intense rainfall, storms and sea level rise that are contributing to worsening flooding in countries from Indonesia to Cameroon to Pakistan.

NO COMPENSATION

In Accra, government officials say homes and businesses built in or along drainage routes are illegal and their owners will be given no compensation if they are demolished. Officials argue adequate warning is being given to home owners.

But residents dispute that assertion.

"This house had been standing here for the past decade and nobody had informed me my house was sitting on a waterway," said Charles Okoe, a 48-year-old businessman whose home in Sakama, a suburb of Accra, was demolished in June as part of the waterway clearing campaign.

Okoe said he was only informed in March that his house was sited on a waterway. He is now staying with friends and family until he has enough money for a new permanent home.

Since June, 30 houses in Sakama have been razed to clear waterways and many more are marked for demolition, Mayor Alfred Vanderpuije said.

Flooding caused by heavy seasonal rains killed at least 35 people in Ghana in June, prompting the crackdown on structures built in or alongside drainage routes.

The volume of flood water was less than a year earlier, when it hit record levels, but the National Disaster Management Organisation, the country's relief agency, said the aftermath of this year's flooding was the worst in recent history.

There have been similar scenes across much of West Africa, similarly hit by heavy rains.

RISING DEATHS

Since June this year, floods and mudslides in the region have killed at least 77 people, destroyed the homes, businesses and farms of over 152,000 others and crushed bridges, roads, schools and other infrastructure in at least eight countries, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

In 2009, seasonal floods in West Africa drove more than half a million people from their homes and killed over 100.

Changing weather patterns brought by climate change, poor drainage infrastructure and bad urban planning are proving a deadly combination in Ghana and other parts of West Africa, climate experts and authorities say.

In Accra, overcrowding and poverty have forced people to build on drainage channels or on flood plains, putting them at flood risk when heavy rains come.

Some of those who have had their homes demolished in Accra charge the demolitions are politically motivated. They accuse the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) of punishing them for voting for the opposition New Patriotic Party in the December 2008 general elections.

Accra's mayor has denied the demolitions were linked to politics and said adequate warning was given to those whose houses were slated to be removed. He said three months notice had been served to property owners whose houses were sited on waterways.

He said residents they were not entitled to compensation because their homes had been built illegally.

"No resettlement cost or any compensation package will be paid," Vanderpuije said. "They are not supposed to build on waterways. We have warned them. Sometimes some of them just bypass the city authority's by-laws on building permits."

Safo Kyei, 56, however, one of those who lost his home to the demolition campaign, said his house had been built over 10 years ago and with appropriate documentation.

The trader insisted he was given only three days to relocate and complained that the head of metropolitan assembly failed to attend a planned meeting with residents to discuss the demolition plans.

George Baffour, a 62-year-old retired teacher who also lost his home in Sakama, said President John Evans Atta Mills had promised residents that drains would be built in their neighbourhood and there had been no suggestion of demolition until the notices were given.

Since June 2009, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly and the Tema Municipal Assembly, in the nearby industrial port of Tema, say they have demolished over 260 unauthorised structures believed to be sited on watercourses.

In addition, the Hydrological Services Department and National Disaster Management Organisation have constructed new drains and de-silted choked drains in an effort to ease flooding problems.

VIOLATING HUMAN RIGHTS?

Ghana's human rights watchdog has complained that the manner in which the demolitions are being carried out could be in violation of international norms.

When people lose their homes, "their lives are shattered while many are displaced," the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice said in a statement issued in mid-September.

The commission wants city authorities to be mindful of UN and international guidelines for forced evictions, even when those affected are illegal occupants.

Those guidelines say the state and its agents must ensure that no one is arbitrarily deprived of property or possessions as a result of demolition.

Evictions should not result in people being rendered homeless or vulnerable to other human rights violations such as rape or denial of the right to an adequate standard of living, according to the guidelines.

As the government presses on with efforts to reduce flooding, home owners may not be the only ones set to lose out.

Building inspectors and planning officers could lose their jobs if they are found to have issued building permits for structures on waterways, a formal local government has warned.

Developers who have built structures on waterways and on unauthorised plots also have been refused compensation.

Suleiman Mustapha is a business journalist based in Accra.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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