Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of Operations at the Jubilee House, Stan Dogbehas clarified that Sunday’s exercise at Laboma was not a blanket demolition of the area but targeted structures blocking the Kpeshie Lagoon’s water retention basin.
He said several structures and businesses in Laboma were not touched because they did not fall within the mandate of the Post Flood Mitigation Task Force.
“Sunday morning’s exercise by the Post Flood Mitigation Task Force and the REGSEC was not a demolition of Laboma,” Dogbe said in a post on social media.
According to him, the affected structures had been marked for removal to make way for the dredging of silted areas within the basin, which previously held water flowing towards the sea.
He said the basin had been encroached on after vegetation was destroyed and solid materials, including boulders, were used to fill parts of the area for construction.
“This has affected the flow of water from upstream towards the sea and also reduced the holding capacity of the basin,” he said.
Dogbe said owners of the affected structures had been alerted by the Greater Accra Regional Security Council (REGSEC) more than a month before the exercise.
The operation followed a REGSEC directive issued on August 6 after an inspection of the Laboma Beach enclave. Occupants within what used to be a protected lagoon buffer zone were given 21 days to vacate.
A newly constructed wall along the Labadi-Teshie road was also pulled down because it had been built to block off an area where vegetation had been destroyed and filling with solid materials was ongoing.
Greater Accra Regional Minister Linda Ohenewaa Akweley Ocloo said the operation proceeded peacefully and formed part of efforts to restore the region’s waterways and reduce the risk of flooding.
She said portions of the Kpeshie Lagoon had been reclaimed after trees were cut down and wetlands filled with sand, construction debris and solid waste.
“Everybody knows Laboma. All this place used to be Mangrove, it’s a wetland and that’s the sea. They cut the trees, filled this place and sold the land to developers including businesses to build hotels and other things,” she told the media.
Ocloo said a risk assessment showed that illegal structures in the area had contributed to flooding recorded in Tse Addo.
“We did a risk assessment and we realised that for the first time there was flooding at Tse Addo, it was because of these illegal structures. We engaged them, issued a 21-day ultimatum and we have to secure this basin,” she said.
The Kpeshie Lagoon has been identified as a critical intervention point under the post-flood mitigation programme because years of illegal reclamation, sand filling and uncontrolled development have reduced its natural capacity to retain floodwaters.
