The Resident Engineer of the Korle-Lagoon Ecological Restoration Project (KLERP), Ms Theresa Aidoo, says pollution in the Korle Lagoon has reached a crisis point, which calls for emergency measures to prevent a national catastrophe.
�Failure to address the current situation urgently will disable the lagoon as the main drainage route for floodwaters in the Odaw River basin and lead to the eventual destruction of aquatic life in the lagoon,� she warned.
Currently, approximately one-third of the lower lagoon (part of the lagoon close to the beach) has been blocked due to the construction of the new bridge.
Further, a large portion of the lagoon near the Sodom and Gomorrah slum is also choked with garbage to the extent that no water runs through that part of the lagoon.
Ms Aidoo stated that if urgent measures were not taken to salvage the situation. Accra would lose the Korle-Lagoon, with catastrophic consequences.
The problem, according to her, had compounded the narrowing of the unlined part of the Odaw drain, behind Sodom and Gomorrah, which makes it nearly impossible for any form of desilting of the upstream canals and the use of sawdust in stabilizing the banks of the drain so that the residents of the slum could construct their wooden structures there.
Ms Aidoo stated that now was the ideal time to carry out any form of dredging and desilting works on the Korle Lagoon and its tributaries since the rains had stopped. �The ability of the lagoon to hold floodwaters has been drastically reeducated and the authorities have to act fast,� she said.
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