Let Us Protect The Weija Water Reservoir Before It Is Totally Poisoned By Pollutants

A future catastrophe that will affect millions of Accra's residents is slowly unfolding. The Weija water reservoir serving Accra's residents is being polluted at an unprecedented rate.

By highlighting what is going on, this blog hopes that immediate action by the authorities to halt it, will be forthcoming - and that all the political parties will support it.

That it is occurring, at all, without causing widespread outrage - even though thousands of commuters daily use the Mallam-Kasoa highway, which runs beside the Ghana Water Company Limited's (GWCL) Weija reservoir  to travel to and from work - neatly sums up the nature of the mostly-apathetic society that has evolved in Ghana, since Nkrumah's overththrow in February 1966.

Precious few in this country now care about what happens to our natural heritage and to our public spaces. And not many take any notice of the few valiant individuals who risk their lives fighting to stop that canker-of-apathy from destroying our country.

Rivers and other water bodies, across vast swathes of the landmass of Ghana, are slowly being poisoned with heavy metals and toxic chemicals with impunity, by lawless individuals concerned only with their own individual well-being.

And at a time of global warming, even forests across the nation are being decimated by greedy criminals, who have grown super-rich from illegal logging -  in collusion with some of the very public officials paid to protect those forests.

Yet, today, self-seeking and dishonest politicians,  are busy fighting each other in endless propaganda battles on the airwaves of television and FM radio stations, for the opportunity to rule Ghanaians -  and doubtless have the power to dispense patronage in a corruption-riddled society: and send their own net worth to stratospheric heights, that way.

The question is: Why, in the face of all that apathy being shown by our selfish educated urban elites, are young people in Ghana, not rejecting both the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which have superintended over this unfortunate state of affairs since the confounded 4th Republic came into being in 1992?

There is not a single Ghanaian, who truly loves this country, who does not often ponder over the question: Are the vast majority of our current crop of politicians, just  in politics merely to "Chop Ghana small" (to quote a pidgin English phrase of infamy, once uttered by a Lebanese crook, cocking a snook at Ghanaians, whiles ripping off Mother Ghana, through countless shady business deals)?

The encroachers that are gradually turning the edges of the Weija reservoir, into a shanty town straddling its shoreline, would never be allowed to put down roots there, in any serious country - where securing the future of coming generations, is a matter of some importance, to most ordinary people.

The question is: Who is actually responsible for protecting the sanctity of the borders of the Weija reservoir of the GWCL? Perhaps it is a matter that ought to be of concern to all of Accra's residents.

Surely, well-paid officials of that state-owned water company, ought to realise that it is vital that all those unauthorised structures and businesses along the entire shoreline of the Weija reservoir, are removed immediately?

We are lucky that Mrs. Rawlings, the former first lady's NGO, the 31st December Women's Movement, planted trees along part of the shoreline of the Weija reservoir years ago.

Without that tree cover, only heaven knows what would regularly happen to water levels in the dam, during today's extended drought periods, resulting from the weather extremes that are now the new norm -  as a result of global climate change.

Mrs. Rawlings and her 31st December Movement, clearly understood the need to protect the Weija water reservoir because of its importance in the provision of treated drinking-water for Accra's residents. All who live in Accra ought to be grateful to them for the foresight and love of country, which led them to undertake that conservation initiative.

It says a lot about those now in charge of the GWCL, that all manner of people can build unauthorised structures, and set up pollution-causing businesses, such as car repair workshops, as well as even the production of sundry concrete products, along the shoreline of that very important water reservoir for Accra's residents, with such impunity.

Do the management and workers of the GWCL not see the future catastrophe staring them in the face - with all manner of enterprises and entities in their supply chains catering to their needs, springing up along the reservoir's shoreline adjacent to the Mallam-Kasoa highway, as one approaches the road's toll booths from Mallam: especially as the situation now is that the Densu River is already polluted upstream before it gets to fill the reservoir downstream on its way to emptying itself into the sea?

Let them take immediate steps to remove all the encroachers along the entire shoreline of the Weija water reservoir - and do so before it becomes too late to save that vital asset of their company's all-important production department.

Every structure around the reservoir's entire shoreline ought to be bulldozed to the ground by the 48 Engineers Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces. Enough is enough.

There is far too much lawlessness in this country. How can we ever progress if there is no discipline in Ghanaian society?

Those recent developments along the reservoir's shoreline are simply intolerable. And we must all refuse to put up with the situation as it is at the moment. Those in charge of the GWCL must sit up.

They must not allow the Weija water reservoir to be poisoned yet further by dangerous pollutants released into it by those who have encroached on its shoreline. They must all go. Period.