By Isaac Arkoh
Cape Coast, Aug 22, GNA – More than 500 homeowners in Cape Coast affected by the Cape Coast–Takoradi Highway Big Push Road construction, have called on the Government to urgently provide adequate compensation and proper resettlement following an ongoing demolition along that stretch.
About 2,000 residents some of whom have lived along the stretch for more than 50 years, said they had been left stranded with no places of abode as they slept in the open with no money to rent.
Some residents claimed their buildings were not inside the highway buffer zone, but were nonetheless marked for demolition, forcing them to pull down the structures themselves.
They said the authorities paid only GHC5,000 per room in compensation, an amount they described as inadequate, given current construction costs.
Some residents living in “mud houses” from the University of Cape Coast West Gate through 31st Junction, Duakor, Okyeso and Abakam near the Iture estuary, adjoining Elmina, said they were not adequately compensated.
The corridor reflects three historical layers of preuniversity Fante coastal settlements under Oguaa authority, and mid20thcentury Ewe fishing migration that created Duakor and other communities and the post1962 universitydriven urbanisation that transformed peripheral villages into integrated parts of the Cape Coast Metropolis.
The religiously diverse communities, host Pentecostal and Charismatic churches, mainline denominations and traditional shrines such as the Sankofa Shrine.
Confirming the residents’ concerns, Mr Wonder Adukpo, the Secretary to Togbe Edward Kponorvi, the Chief of Abakam, said the officials’ “lukewarm antics” on meaningful compensations had been disheartening.
He said they only wanted engagement with the government, noting that they were not opposed to the project, but to what he described as the “contractors absolute disregard for the community.”
According to him, already, a rocky sea-defence structure built during earlier coastal protection works had blocked their access to the Atlantic Ocean, crippling their centuries-old fishing livelihood and plunging many families into poverty.
He explained that the fishers could no longer launch canoes or harvest fish, which had caused job losses, hunger, rising debt and school dropouts as parents could not afford basic needs.
Mr Adukpo added that households dependent on fishing had reported about a 70 percent fall in earnings, forcing some people into menial jobs or migration and increasing youth unemployment.
He also said daily life had been affected by loss of playgrounds, water contamination from construction dust, and greater flood risk due to inadequate drainage.
Madam Beatrice Badu, whose compound housed three extended-family households, said the compensation offered was “insultingly low.”
“We were given a paper and told to sign for GHC5000 per room. There was no consultation with the contractor except some weeks’ notice to relocate with no social impact assessment shared with us. Many of us are poor, the amounts proposed will not rebuild our lives,” she said.
“We were given GHC5000 per room with no proper notice and no fair valuation,” said Madam Monica Amekoafia, a homeowner in the Okyeso enclave.
“This is my house, the only asset I have and was forced to pull down, yet my building is not close to the road. Where are my children going to sleep? We need humane treatment, not empty promises.”
Mr Kwesi Amanor, a fisher from Manfi-Kumasi who operated a stall near the East Gate, described the demolitions as “inhumane” and said the exercise ignored the socio-economic and human rights of vulnerable residents.
“This isn’t just about buildings. It’s about our lives and our means of survival,” he said.
However, some officials of the construction firm the GNA reached out to, declined to speak to the issue.
GNA
Edited by Alice Tettey /Benjamin Mensah
Reporter: Isaac Arkoh
Reporter’s email address: [email protected]