Blockade Of Songor Lagoon Aqueduct By MacDan Is Leading To Floods

…residents cry out

Residents of Ada Songor in the Greater Accra Region are raising alarm over what they consider an impending flooding disaster from a reckless blockade of the natural aqueducts delivering water into the Songor salt lagoon by Electrochem, a company owned by a financier of the ruling New Patriotic Party.

The alarmed residents warn that the blockage of the aqueduct means that water flowing from Shai Osudoku, through Aveyime and other villages will be engorged when it rains and very likely overflow and flood these communities.

Mr. Abraham Tetteh Karimu, spokesperson for the Songor residents reiterates that this risky situation is unnecessary and the result of Electrochem’s unjustifiable attempt to monopolize the Songor for its salt.

Electrochem is owned by Mr. Daniel McKorley aka MacDan owner of the MacDan Group of companies and a bankroller of the ruling governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).

“We think that the man is coming to sink our villages. If you look, you will see that these are all the places where the water will flow into the songor lagoon. Now he has blocked it totally, where will the water going? The water is going to enter all the villages,” Mr. Tetteh Karimu lamented.

Mr. Karimu who has been one of the leading persons of the local resistance against the move by MacDan to take over the Songor Lagoon also lamented that the government has arrested many of the locals and thrown them into cells over their resistance adding most of the arrestees are supporters and campaigners for the ruling party.

On his part the Assemblyman for the area, Lawrence Kete, reiterated that the people will resist the attempt by the government and MacDan to monopolize the salt lagoon saying the move to make the people laborers while MacDan and his Electrochem monopolize the salt lagoon will not be allowed.

He also said it is not only Sege that is at risk but villages in Shai Osudoku and communities through which the water to the lagoon courses are all at risk.

Electrochem’s agreement with the government to seize control of the salt lagoon for 15 years has been the subject of controversy. This is because the agreement seeks to alienate the people totally from benefitting from the salt which they have been winning since time immemorial.

Even more poignant is the supposed agreement to the venture, which is based on a controversial land-use plan that had been rushed through Parliament to replace an existing Master plan for the development of the Songor lagoon, developed by the erstwhile Rawlings government.

That original Master Plan had provided for the people of the area to be included in the development of the Songor lagoon and had been based on law, unlike the land use plan.

The people are demanding that the original Master Plan be implemented rather than the land use plan based on which MacDan has been given the contract to mine the salt exclusively for 15 years.

In response to the people’s resistance MacDan has reportedly been clamping down on villagers with a task force made up of land guards and Police officers.