The Ashaiman Municipal Assembly has started a demolition exercise to clear all structures situated on a storm drain which passes through Community 22 to receive water flows from the Gbemi and Armatsuru streams. About 250 houses have been earmarked for demolition during the exercise expected to last for five days. Areas affected by the exercise are Ashaiman New Town, Moneomanye, Ashaiman Zone 5 , Lebanon , Jericho , Roman Down and the Irrigation Dam Site. Residents of the area were able to remove their valuables before the start of the demolition exercise, which affected concrete and wooden structures. When the Daily Graphic got to the scene, some residents were seen busily gathering their belongings while others were raining insults on the Assembly’s task force and making derogatory remarks about the demolishing gang. Two bulldozers were used in the exercise and as one pulled down the houses, the other cleared the debris from the drain and levelled the sides of the storm drain . Speaking to the Daily Graphic on site , the Municipal Chief Executive, Numo Adinortey Addison, said the Assembly met with the residents last year to inform them of the need to demolish structures which they had constructed on the storm drain. He said radio announcements and discussions were made to further explain the reasons why the exercise was necessary. Numo Addison said the area experienced flooding following the least rainfall because of human activity on the drain and over-grown vegetation. He noted that flood water could not pass through the silted drain and had to over-flow its banks leading to loss of lives in the last two years. He said the exercise would be extended to other areas of the municipality to ensure that development was controlled. The Municipal Engineer, Mr Isaac Lamptey, who supervised the exercise, explained that the drain was heavily silted while the supposed 100ft buffer area had also been encroached upon. He stated that the exercise would limit the buffer space to about 50 ft on each side of the storm drain and clear it of silt while waiting for work on it to start. Mr Lamptey said the construction of a new storm drain was underway under the Urban Environment Sanitation Project(UESP) II. He was optimistic that the exercise would be beneficial to the residents because they would now sleep and have their valuables safe when it rained. Source: Daily Graphic/Ghana