The Sunyani Youth Development Association (SYDA) has threatened legal action against estate developers and house owners who have built around flood-prone areas in the Sunyani Municipality.

According to the Association, it will collaborate with the Sunyani Traditional Council to ensure that properties and structures on waterways are demolished to avert flooding during the rainy season.

During an inspection visit by the Association to a number of sources of rivers and streams in the Municipality, it was gathered that many church buildings, structures and houses had been built in unauthorised places, particularly, on waterways and the courses of rivers and streams in the Municipality.

Households around streams such as Nana Bonsu, Kanesua and Agozo in the Municipality were also noted to be dumping refuse and polluting water sources in the Municipality.

“This act of lawlessness which is becoming a canker in the Municipality must be stopped before the unexpected happens during the rainy season,” Mr. Michael Asare-Yeboah, the Vice Chairman of the Association told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Tuesday in Sunyani.

He noted the Tano River, the main source of water supply to the Municipality, was being polluted because of the solid and liquid waste being dumped into rivers and streams in the Municipality that are tributaries of it (Tano River).

Most vegetable farmers engaged in lettuce, cabbage, garden eggs, carrot and cucumber production fetched water from some of those rivers and streams to water their crops and this could lead to food poisoning, Mr. Asare-Yeboah stated.

“It is also unlawful to construct concrete slabs to block waterways,” he said and therefore appealed to the Management of the Sunyani Municipal Assembly to help check the unpatriotic and destructive activities of residents and estate developers who have been polluting the Tano River.

Mr. Atta Akoto Senior, the President of the Association also implored the Lands Commission, the Town and Country Planning Department and the National Disaster Management Organization to be proactive to avoid any preventable disaster in the Municipality.

Efforts made by the GNA to contact one Mr. Oppong, the Sunyani Municipal Planning Officer was unsuccessful.