The workers of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) are on standby to disconnect water and electricity services to Sodom and Gomorrah as the first step towards evicting squatters from the slum.
The disconnection of utility services to the area is to be preceded by an exercise to relocate the bulk buying Agbogbloshie Market located near the slum to Adzen Kotoku at Amasaman in the Ga West District in two weeks� time.
According to the Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr. Alfred Vanderpuije, officials of the two utility providers were awaiting final instructions from the AMA to begin the disconnection exercise.
�We have already met the officials and they are on standby,� he told the Daily Graphic in Accra on Friday 2nd October.
He indicated that as part of the second phase of the exercise, the Timber Market also located near Sodom and Gomorrah would be relocated.
Mr. Vanderpuije, accompanied by some officials of the assembly and national security, visited Adzen Kotoku on Tuesday 22nd September to assess the level of work so far carried out on the project that will accommodate traders of the bulk buying markets currently operating near Sodom and Gomorrah.
The move, the AMA chief executive explained, was to decongest the city centre and pave the way for the demolition exercise.
Currently, it is estimated that some 45,000 people are living in squalor on a four-acre land at Sodom and Gomorrah and aside from concerns raised with regard to poor environmental sanitation conditions under which they live, their activities are also said to have a negative impact on the Korle Lagoon Ecological Restoration Project (KLERP).
The project, which started a decade ago, has until now not achieved its intended purpose of restoring the lagoon to its original state because it is filled with garbage, particularly plastic waste and saw dust used by some of the squatters to solidify the banks of the lagoon.
As part of measures to evict the squatters, the AMA issued an ultimatum to them to provide evidence of legal occupation or vacate the area prior to the demolition exercise but the deadline expired three days ago with none of the residents complying with any of the directives.
This is the second time this year that the assembly has served notice on the squatters to remind them of their illegal occupation of the area and the need for them to voluntarily vacate the place before the intended demolition exercise.
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