Editorial: 'Sodom and Gomorrah' must go

, but with a human face

What started as a temporary attempt at resettlement of people in the aftermath of the Kokomba and Nanumba conflict at Old Fadama (present day Sodom and Gomorrah), has now emerged as an albatross on the nation's conscience. Dr. Bart-Plange, who operates a health facility at Sodom and Gomorrah, said "It is a blot on the national psyche that we have a community like this".

After initiating one of Ghana's biggest sprawling slum, the whole nation went to sleep, as every homeless person who managed to find him or herself in Accra moved to Sodom and Gomorrah, increasing its size and frontiers. Today, it remains one of the biggest problems facing the national capital and the country.

The "Korle Lagoon Ecological Restoration Project," under which government is expected to dredge the lagoon and restore its surroundings to a green belt and recreational facility was stalled by activities of the residents of the area. The existence of Sodom and Gomorrah and the lack of political will by successive governments have connived to keep the holistic execution of the project on the drawing board for some time now.

Despite policies and directives formulated by various governments to evacuate the area and to pave way for the project to go on, the situation has not changed. For as long as our politicians continue to value the thousands of squatters at Sodom and Gomorrah in terms of votes, the scourge that has been planted in the middle of the city will continue to exist.

It was, therefore, heart warming when the Accra Metropolitan Assembly boss, Alfred Vanderpuije served notice that he would evict the over 40,000 slum dwellers in the area. This has not been without a fight as the residents have sworn to resist any attempt by the city authorities to evict them.

In the bid to regularize their stay, the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah filed a writ for an injunction to restrain the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) from carrying out its planned eviction but the court turned it down. A subsequent appeal also failed to materialize. It is therefore as clear as broad daylight that the law is now on the side of AMA in their resolve to remove what is now considered a blight on the nation's conscience.

Our plea, however, is that the eviction exercise should be done with a human face. In a desperate attempt to correct a bad situation that is an indictment on all of us, we should not end up creating a new problem.

It is a fact that most of the settlers at Sodom and Gomorrah are within the lower income brackets and just dislocating them without any meaningful plans and programme in place could create a boomerang effect.

We humbly suggest to the government to also get involved in the exercise and not just allow the AMA alone to execute it. Also, the idea of voluntary repatriation should be sold to those who are ready to take advantage of it and go back to their hometowns. Government's new Agriculture policy of 'Youth in Agric.', especially for those being implemented in the Northern, Upper east and Upper west regions, where a majority of the settlers of Sodom and Gomorrah come from, should also be extended to those who are willing to move. The whole Ghana has come to a unanimous agreement that Sodom and Gomorrah must go, but it must be done with a human face.