Old Fadama demolitions: stubborn slum dwellers or wobbly city authority?
A number of bulldozers were seen clearing piles of debris from where hundreds of structures that straddled the heavily polluted Odaw River had been pulled down.
Dredging machines also evacuated tonnes of plastics and other waste matter from the pregnant river.
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Scores of victims of the April 15, 2020 demolition exercise - men; women; the old and the young; were still counting their losses. In dozens, they sat under canopies that had been erected to protect them from the scorching sun.
They wore grim faces that epitomised dejection, despair, frustration and melancholy.
This was the sight that greeted me when I got to the Old Fadama slum at Agbogbloshie in Accra on April 18.
Ordeal
As I made my way through the area and interacted with the victims, they narrated harrowing experiences of how they had lost their livelihoods to the demolition exercise, including how it had compounded the accommodation challenge there.
The leader of one of the groups, Mr Musah Abdul Rahim, told me that they now lived in a ‘survival of the fittest’ situation as they hungered and thirsted in the midst of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
"I have personally lost all my businesses including a commercial bath house; a shop for sale of motors; fuel retail site and rooms that I rent out to people. At least, 40 young men survived on some of these businesses; but now, they have nothing to turn to," he said.
The 48-year-old father of five added that accommodation had become a major challenge. "At first, we had six to eight people living in one wooden structure but because of the demolition, you can see up to 15 people in one structure.
“We moved our wives and sisters to sleep in one room, while the men also sleep together. If you see how we pack ourselves into the wooden structures, you will cry," he said.
COVID-19
At the time of my visit, there was a partial lockdown of Accra as part of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. However, the conditions the slum dwellers found themselves in defeated the call for social distancing as a measure to prevent the spread.
For 21-year-old Alima Yakubu, the demolition of their ‘homes’ in the middle of a lock down gave them double agony. "There is a lock down of Accra so we cannot move back to our villages; we cannot go about the menial jobs we do for a living; and now, our rooms have been demolished. How can they ask us not to stay close to one another in this kind of situation," she asked.
When I returned to the slum community on Saturday, April 25, many of the victims of the demolition exercise had gone back to their home towns, while others were putting up with their relatives and friends.
Those who had nowhere to turn to were still sleeping in the open at the mercy of the weather.
Old Fadma demolitions
After my visits to this slum community, I started to reflect on the quagmire of serial demolitions and the questions that begged for answers.
On many occasions, the AMA demolished what it considered illegal structures in that slum. However, as many times as those demolitions have been carried out, the slum dwellers staged a comeback.
For instance, on June 22, 2015, the AMA demolished more than 1,000 structures that were 100 metres close to the Odaw River, rendering scores of the residents homeless.
The demolition was carried out in the wake of the June 3, 2015 flood disaster that claimed some 159 lives. It is this same part of the slum that was demolished again in April 15.
It is worrying that the residents of this slum do not care a hoot about the negative impact of their activities along the Odaw River and keep rebuilding their structures very close to it.
Their activities get the river choked with waste matter that gets the environment polluted and pose serious health risks to the public.
The perpetual dumping of waste into the river obstruct its flow and contributes greatly to the perennial flooding in Accra. The least said about the colossal amount that the state spends annually to dredge that river the better.
Defence wall
It is in line with this that when the AMA took that bold decision in 2015 to construct a wall around the Odaw River to prevent squatters from encroaching on it,it came as a huge sigh of relieve.
In October, 2015, the Turkish government provided $100,000 to the AMA to support the construction of a 5.64-kilometre wall along the Odaw River and the Korle Lagoon.
The construction of the wall was part of a coordinated action plan by the AMA for remedial works to be done to enhance the flow of water through the Odaw River channel and the Korle Lagoon into the sea.
As part of the plan, the Accra Metropolitan Works Department was expected to seal off the Odaw River from encroachment and pollution. Also, a 600-metres retaining wall and a 580-metre block wall were to be constructed along the Odaw River from the Graphic Road to the Ring Road Central.
Where is the wall?
It is worrying ,therefore, that five years down the line, there is no fence wall along the Odaw River and structures have to be demolished to pave the way for dredging of the river.
When I enquired from the AMA where the defence wall was, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the city authority, Mr Gilbert Nii Ankrah, told me that the assembly had constructed it but the residents of Old Fadama destroyed it.
“I was not the PRO at that time but the briefing I got is that the wall was constructed but residents of Old Fadama demolished it,” he said.
Fact check
The AMA's claim that it had constructed the wall but the residents of Old Fadama pulled it down is not entirely true.
On paper, the wall may have been constructed but evidence on the ground showed that the city authority made an attempt to construct the wall but it became a stillbirth.
Work on the project stalled in 2016 and that gave the slum dwellers the chance to trespass the forbidden area to build their structures again.
The Daily Graphic reported on February 28, 2017 that hundreds of squatters ,whose structures were destroyed in the June 22, 2015 demolition exercise by the AMA at Old Fadama had staged a massive comeback.
"It was also observed that parts of the wall being constructed by the AMA had been broken to create access to the demolished portions,” the story said.
Below is the link to that story: https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/squatters-return-to-sodom-and-gomorrah.html
Call
The time has come for the AMA to take the bull by the horn by ensuring that the proposed defence wall is built along the Odaw River to prevent slum dwellers from encroaching on it.
The cyclical quagmire of demolitions and encroachment over the years has proven to be counterproductive and must no longer be countenanced.
