Encroachment on public land is commonplace in the country because the law prohibiting it is hardly applied or even where it is, it is not done to the letter.
Consequently, some people like chiefs and politicians who wield some authority encroach on such lands or encourage others to do so and the people do itwith impunity because they know at the end of the day, they would triumph over the state.
This is why the Greater Accra Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) and four assemblies in the region, namely the La-Dadekotopon, Ledzokuku, Tema West and Ayawaso West municipals, should be commended for putting together a task force to demolish unauthorised structures sited along the Kpeshie Lagoon in Accra.
The RCC and the assemblies say yesterday’s exercise was meant to reclaim encroached portions of the land, on which they would plant trees to preserve the ecology of the place.
The place is a wetland which must be preserved for its various benefits.
Wetlands are areas where water covers the soil, or is present either at or near the surface of it all year or for varying periods of time during the year and are habitats of some types of plants and animals.
They are also natural sponges that trap and slowly release surface water, rain, groundwater and flood waters.
Besides, they are used as Ramsar sites, which are designated places of international importance for migratory animal life, especially birds.
Ghana has wetlands and some Ramsar sites mainly along the coastal regions, with just one in the interior.
The coastal regions are Central, Greater Accra, and Volta, with Ashanti as the interior one.
Today, the wetlands, like other public lands, have been hijacked by private developers, mainly high-profile people but these must be checked.
The encroachment on wetlands must be given special attention, so that all structures on the wetlands at Sakumono, for instance, and elsewhere in the country could be demolished and the ecology preserved.
And all the demolitions should be done with reference to that which has happened along the Kpeshie Lagoon.
The property owners should be given enough notice to remove their structures failure of which everything must be brought down.
Then the owners should be surcharged by the assemblies rather than any of them receiving compensation.
With the problem in the wetlands solved, the state should proceed to retrieve all state lands taken over by private developers without recourse to law.
In that case, public officials found to have contributed to such encroachments through their actions or inaction must be made to face the rigours of the law.
Considering the dynamics of life today, it would only take the strict adherence to the law to rein in the proclivity of people to cheat the system.
That way we can have a country in which everyone would strive to do things with recourse to the law, thereby avoiding self-centred acts like filling wetlands and putting up buildings there.
