By Ewoenam Kpodo
Glidzi (V/R), Oct. 9, GNA – The Chiefs and People of Klikor Traditional Area in the Ketu South Municipality have called on authorities, especially the Municipal Assembly, to make the ban on sand winning for export permanent.
There is currently a temporary ban on commercial sand winning across the Municipality to allow for investigations into concerns raised by a youth group, Concerned Citizens of Klikor, regarding sand winning and its attendant health, environmental and security challenges to residents.
The group some weeks ago, petitioned Ghana’s Minerals Commission asking it to move to stop the winning of sand in the area for export into neighbouring Togo, noting that the act, which had taken major proportion of the area’s agricultural lands at Kpoglu, Bodzakope, Dzogbenu, Tsivoli, Akato and Lotakor for the past four years, was recently being extended to new communities including Satsimadza-Glidzi Junction and AME Junction-Sovie.
In the petition which had 85 signatories, the Klikor youth suspected that individuals in powerful places were behind the “nefarious act” claiming, “they use heavy-duty earth moving equipment to collect the sand under heavy police protection and transport same to Togo” making about 500 trips daily.
They were concerned that the current sites of operation by these contractors could serve as safe grounds to relocate to in times of disaster such as floods, currently affecting residents of the Satsimadza suburbs.
The Ghana News Agency’s (GNA) visit to communities along Kpoglu-Klikor stretch confirmed the concerns of the residents as there were evidence of farmlands that had been mined and degraded and with pits created as a result, left to collect rainwater.
The visit, however, showed no steps being taken to restore the mined land to its approximate original form to save the environment, enrich the land and turn it (the non-arable land) into an agrarian land for food production.
An elderly man in one of the communities who would not disclose his identity to the GNA suspected that illegal sand winning which he termed as “sand galamsey” was contributing to the flooding situation currently being experienced in Agbozume of Somé Traditional Area and in parts of Klikor Traditional Area.
He said: “Agbozume, parts of Klikor are submerged because of these illegal activities. You’ll see that they dug pits right under people’s homes for the sand. Houses are hanging.
“We’re dying. We call on the government for an end to this.”
Torgbui Akpalu Agbali II, Dufia of Glidzi who recounted an encounter with sand winners said it was not enough to temporarily ban sand winning for export, but it must be made permanent to save the area from being further destroyed.
“Some unknown men came into my land at Alagashito-Dzogbeto and used a day to excavate large volumes of sand without any recourse to me. When we got there, we realised they were all Togo-registered trucks collecting sand. Communities along Glidzi Junction-Agbozume Police Junction were the recent targets.
“These are Klikor lands and for anyone to connive with foreign trucks to collect sand and export same beats our imagination. Our farmlands have been taken and so are lands for buildings. Besides, water now spills from pits left to collect rainwater and that is contributing to the flooding we’re experiencing. Government must act to put an end to this illegality,” he said.
GNA