By Alexander Nyarko Yeboah, GNA
Tema April 9, GNA - The Protocol Officer of the TDC Development Company, Mr. Ian Oquaye, has hinted of a controlled demolishing exercise at Kaizer Flats in Tema Community Four which would ensure the safety of other residents.
Mr. Oquaye says, “It is a combined and controlled demolishing exercise, which will take place in such a way that the people who are going to be affected are those close by, and therefore the need to let them understand the mechanism that will be used.”
He said this on Saturday during a pre-demolishing meeting with residents of the Kaizer Flats, Community Four, Tema, to brief them on the demolishing of four blocks in the flats and also take their concerns regarding the exercise.
He observed that the exercise would be a controlled operation that would ensure that discomfort to residents were reduced drastically, because they were going to apply the best of modern technology in the process.
He added that, “We cannot control dust, but pollution would be reduced to be barest minimum in order not to create inconvenience for residents. They are going to do the demolishing floor by floor with each floor having a stand-by water facility to prevent the dust from coming out.”
Reacting to concerns by some residents about how they would demolish one half of a twin block which had one staircase serving two blocks, Mr. Oquaye said the twin block would be the last to be demolished by which time a temporal measure had been put in place to provide an alternative staircase for the non-affected block.
He informed that stakeholder engagement has already taken place with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ghana Health Service (GHS), National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) on stand-by with Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) providing permit for the demolishing.
Mrs. Nina Mantey, a Resident of Block 406, Kaizer Flats, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), told of the devastating effects the dust could cause them, adding that, “We wish to be insured to go to hospital during and after the demolishing exercise, because with dust, we don’t know what chemicals we would be inhaling which may cause us health problems some years to come.”
In that regard, she observed the need to have consistent checks throughout the process and some months after to ensure health problems that may crop up were detected and dealt with.
She pleaded with the TDC to renovate the rest of the flats for them so they could pay them back to make the entire area fit for human habitation.
It would be recalled that residents of four blocks at the Kaizer Flats were asked to vacate the facility due to the poor nature of the blocks which posed health problems to resident.
In that light, the TDC got a court order to eject residents on the first of February, 2018, after several court attempts by the affected residents to resist the eviction.
Demolishing of the said blocks would take place in a couple of weeks and would be undertaken by engineers from 48 Engineers Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF).
GNA
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