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Raging waves, sandwinners: Irony at the Moree shore

Raging waves, sandwinners: Irony at the Moree shore

The irony of the devastation at the Moree beach is disturbing as it is worrying.

Some residents win tonnes of sea sand for sale at the Moree beach and have even established a block making factory at the shore.

A worrying yet obviously thriving sand winning business is going on at one section on the Moree beach.

A few weeks ago many were sympathising with some residents of Moree after sea waves swept through houses along its beach.

Soon after the incident, media men chanced on a massive sand winning site close to the Moree community.

It is a massive site of a “village” of huge sea sand mounds spread over a large portion of the sea shore.

The people engaged in the sand winning walked into the sea and took sand with basins to the shore.

They took to their heels when media men, together with officials of Hen Mpoano, a non- governmental organisation in the fisheries sector, and the Fisheries Commission visited the site as part of a field trip to the beach.

After convincing them to come back one of them agreed to speak.

Contractors 

Maa Adjoa said she was unemployed and carried sea sand for sale to make ends meet.

She said she sold a basin of the sand between GH¢3 and GH¢4.

She said tricycle riders, and in some cases truck drivers, came in to buy the sea sand for contractors and individual builders.

It is an irony that just a few metres from the site where this is taking place, 15 rooms were brought down last three weeks by the sea waves, and several people were displaced.

A few days later another house was destroyed by the ravaging sea waves.

NADMO

The District Director of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Semaila Kabore, stated that the incident had been further exacerbated by sand winning activities in some of the communities.

He said the construction of sea defence walls in Cape Coast and Anomabo had increased the impact of the sea waves in some adjoining communities, including Moree.

That was blatantly evident by the many heaps of sand at the shore. He appealed to stakeholders to support efforts to protect the environment.

EPA

The Central Regional Director of the Environmental Protection Agency, Shine Fiagome, said the EPA was aware of the devastation caused but indicated there was not much the agency could do.

He indicated that the perpetrators won the sand at night, making it difficult for arrests to be made. 

Mr Fiagome said the EPA believed that sensitisation was critical in changing such behaviours and ensuring that the communities themselves policed the environment.

He stated that the communities must understand that the effect of the sand winning activities were grave, and appealed to all traditional authorities, local authorities and the police to get involved to stop the practice.

He said the EPA would, for its part, continue to work to sensitise communities to understand the effect of sand winning on the communities.

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