PROTECT WEIJA DAM NOW

THIS week, a combined team of military and police personnel is expected to be deployed for a special operation to demolish illegal structures and flush out land guards and stone winners around the Weija Dam.
The move has become imperative because of the threat posed to the dam by the illegal structures and activities of the stone winners. The persistent use of dynamite by the stone winners to blast rocks near the dam, according to experts, has exposed the dam to imminent collapse.
This is, indeed, very disturbing news! The Weija Dam serves more than 2.8 million residents of the eastern and western parts of Accra as they rely on the dam for water. The collapse of the dam will spell doom for these residents.
Therefore, the DAILY GRAPHIC welcomes efforts being made to protect one of the most reliable sources of water supply that has served the needs of millions of Ghanaians over the years.
Additionally, the seemingly ceaseless pollution of the dam as a result of the activities of human settlers around it raises very serious concerns, as it increases the cost of treating the water and, to a very large extent, justifies any decision to demolish illegal residential and non-residential structures.
As noted by the Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Alhaji Abubakar Saddique Boniface, "This is a national emergency that requires immediate action. We don't need to waste time on this matter because the rate of destruction is serious.”
As we highlight the threat and express our commitment to halt the destruction of the dam, the DAILY GRAPHIC wishes to caution against the temptation to bow to pressure after the demolition exercise has commenced.
Quite recently, after the floods in the Ga West District which claimed the lives of six persons, the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment gave a directive that all houses on water courses around Mallam must be demolished. After the commencement of the exercise, the zeal was lost because of complaints from sections of the public that the exercise was inhuman.
There have been similar instances when local government agencies have been compelled to succumb to the will of illegal squatters who complain of “no place to lay our heads”.
While there is always the somewhat justified temptation to empathise with such squatters, it is even more justifiable that such structures are destroyed in the interest of the masses and the very lives of the squatters. Therefore, no effort must be spared in that regard.
There is so much indiscipline in our society and our failure to punish offenders only serves to provide an impetus for more indiscipline. When the Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, launched his campaign against indiscipline, there was the criticism that the problem rather had to do with the lack of resources and social amenities. Yet, the fallacy of that assertion is betrayed by the brazen flouting of simple traffic laws and bye-laws on sanitation.
On the issue of land guards, perhaps it is apt to remark that the country seems to have consistently addressed the issue with kid gloves. Land guards should never have any place in our society, as they always serve the interests of a few selfish individuals who do not believe in the tenets of a just, orderly and lawful society. They condemn all of us into the state of nature where confusion and violence hold sway.
Our security agencies must deal with the issue of land guards with utmost decisiveness to uproot this canker once and for all. It is depressing that for a national asset like the Weija Dam, the country has, for all these years, contended with the threat of land guards. We respect the right to property ownership, but where land guards masquerade with guns in defiance of the laws of public order and the right to ammunition, with the connivance developers, then no one needs to prompt our security agencies that it is a step too far.