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| Atsiakpor, a major threat to the Songor Lagoon |
By Duke Tagoe
A few powerful men are wrecking untold havoc on
the Ada Songor Lagoon with associated devastating environmental consequences.
The Lagoon produces a greater part of salt
consumed in Ghana and in many Western African states including Togo.
Fishing activities have also been badly affected
as water levels in the lagoon have dropped greatly driving communities along
the lagoon into a state of desperation.
Private businessmen in connivance with local
chiefs have demarcated portions of the lagoon and have grabbed huge swaths of
lands around the lagoon.
As if that were not enough, with the aid of
electric powered pumping machines, water is pumped out of the lagoon into dug
out dams or dykes locally called “Atsiakpo” for the production of salt.
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| A cross section of salt winers and the media at the Songor Lagoon |
These dykes are owned by a few people and have
driven many salt winners out of business. The poverty stricken salt winners
then work on these dykes and win salt for the owners of the dykes at fifty Ghana Pesewas (50p) per bowl.
Rev.
Sophia Kitcher, Secretary of Okor Songhor Women’s Association has taken a swipe
at the complicity of the local chiefs and clan heads in what she considers a
crime and describes as “repugnant”.
“Our livelihoods have been destroyed forever and
poverty has come to visit us again. Why must a handful of people forcefully
take what must belong to everybody, ” she questioned with tears running down
her face.
The phenomenon of “Atsiakpo” has also contributed
in many ways to the destruction of the landscape and other living organisms in
the soil.
The locals believe much of the problem will be
resolved when the sandbar between the sea and the lagoon is removed. However
the sums involved in the removal of the Sand Bar are huge and runs in the
millions of Ghana cedis.
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| A pile of salt close to an "Atsiakpor |
In 2011, a combined team of representatives from
the Minerals Commission, Attorney General’s Department, the office of the Chief
Justice and the Private Enterprises Foundation attempted to relocate
communities and indigenous people along the Songor Lagoon for takeover by
strategic investors but the move was met with stiff resistance.
“When they came, they asked us to move away from
the lagoon and promised to give us alternative livelihood in farming and animal
rearing and those who were interested in fish farming would be moved to settle
along the Volta River” said Albert Apetorgbor of the Ada Songor Cooperative.
The cooperative is leading in the transformation
of salt winning communities and is challenging the exclusive monopoly rights
over the lagoon.
Dr Yao
Graham, Chief Executive Officer of the Third World Network and a leading
advocate of the National Coalition on Mining (NCOM) is beside himself with
grief. According to him the problem around the Songoor Lagoon has to do with
the push for large scale foreign investment as a strategy for the mining
sector.
He said that
in places where small scale activities like salt wining can thrive, government still
find a way of bringing in foreigners to take over these activities.
Dr Graham said the evidence does not support the
claim that large scale foreign investment will create jobs and develop the
areas where the investments are made.
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| A monument erected for Margaret Kowornu |
On 17th May 1985 armed policemen
acting in concert with a private company raided Bonikope, a community along the
Songor Lagoon killing Margaret Kowornu, a pregnant woman in the process.
Vacuum
Salt Products Limited had alleged at the time that the inhabitants of the area
had encroached on their portion of the lagoon allocated to them by the
government.
A monument has been erected in memory of Margaret. The locals explain that that monument serves as an embodiment of their collective aspirations and imbibes in
them a zeal to fight in defense of their heritage and the Songor lagoon.
Dr David Pessey a member of the Socialist Forum
of Ghana has also described the state of the Songor Lagoon as a calamity of
monstrous proportion and has called for a concerted effort to halt the “grab of
the lagoon as a collective resource. He said “the quest for the maximization of
profit has inebriated certain individuals who wield immense power and believe
they can hold sway over the indigenous people.”
Dr Pessey expressed fear that an Environmental
Impact Assessment will reveal that developments taking
place around the lagoon are having a severe ecological impact on the immediate
surroundings.
In the Ketu-Keta Lagoon area,
Kensingtoon Industries Limited, a salt winning company entered the Dogbekofe
area even before permission was granted.
The communities living along the
Ketu-Keta lagoon were not consulted by the investors before the acquisition of
the lagoon.
Editorial
LISTEN TO OSAGYEFO
It
is always most useful to listen to the words of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah,
Founder of the Republic of Ghana. At the very least they describe our condition
and prescribed solutions to our problems.
In
the introduction to his book “Neo Colonialism; The Last Stage of Imperialism”
he writes, “The essence of neo-colonialism is that the state which is subject
to it, is in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of
international sovereignty.“In reality its economic system and thus its
political policy is directed from outside”.
In
the same book he also wrote “A state in the grip of neo-colonialism is not
master of its own destiny. It is this factor which makes neo-colonialism such a
serious threat to world peace.”
Need we write more?
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