Housing Ministry To Offer Shelter to Agbogbloshie Residents

Mr David Tetteh Assumeng, Chairman of the Committee on Water Resources, Works and Housing, has urged the sector Ministry to take a serious look into the housing needs of traders at the Agbogbloshie market. The house also asked the ministry to support residents of Sodom and Gomorrah slum, who are to be relocated to a new site at Adjen Kotoku in the Ga West District in the Greater Accra Region. Mr Assumeng gave the advice when the committee visited Adjen Kotoku, to look at the progress of work. They also inspected the Weija Water Treatment Plant and the Korle Lagoon Restoration Ecological Project. He urged the contractors to ensure that the work is completed on time in order to achieve the objective for which the relocation of the traders was mooted by the ministry. Mr Hubert Osei-Wusuansa, Deputy Director (Hydro), of the ministry, explained that the relocation exercise was mooted because of the garbage the Agbogbloshie community generate in the area. He said the ministry is liaising with Accra Metropolitan Assembly to collect the huge pile of garbage. Mr Kai Schonecke, Site Engineer for International Marine and Dredging Consultant, undertaking the ecological project showed the members some of the amenities at the Adjen Kotoku site, which comprise a school, clinic, police station, market, transport station and a community centre. Mr Ewan Ter Blanche and Mr Jan De Roeck, also engineers of the project, said the venture would be completed on schedule. Mr Michael Amuakwa, Production Manager at the Weija Treatment Plant said the facility pumps 53.5 million gallons of treated water daily. He said the Kpong Water Project also supplies 40 million gallons of water daily although the demand of the people in Accra and Tema and its environs is about 150 million gallons.