The Ghana Water Company is warning of imminent danger as a private developer puts up a 4-storey building project on one of its main transmission lines at Aboabo in Kumasi.

Officials say the region faces potential pipe burst which could prove fatal because the developer has ignored repeated warning to stop the encroachment.

A supposed permit granted for the building by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly in the jurisdiction of Asokore Mampong Assembly which refused the permit compounds the issue.  

Two major lines, one 12 millimeters and the other 16 millimeters transmit water to Aboabo, Sawaba, Adukrom, Asokore Mampong, KNUST and other communities.

Despite refusal of building permit by the Asokore Mampong Municipal Assembly, workers were busy on site when Nhyira News there.

The frustration of Water Company officials is worsened by a writ filed at the High Court by the developer seeking to restrain the Municipal Assembly from denying him access to the land.

In a writ filed at the Kumasi High Court, Lands division, the plaintiff, Aminu Sahabi is seeking a “declaration of title to all that piece or parcel of land known as Plot 10A, Block “T”, Akorem, Kumasi in the Ashanti region of the Republic of Ghana enclosing an area of 0.14 acres or 0.06 hectares”

He also praying the court for “an order of injunction restraining the defendants (the Asokore Mampong Municipal Assembly) from interfering with the plaintiffs use and enjoyment of his said plot of land including an order restraining the defendants from demolishing any building erected on the said plot of land by the plaintiff or anything thereon”.

Kumasi East District Manager, Asomani Scipio, fears the worse if the structure is allowed to remain.

“The house is going to sit on the pipe and obviously the pipe will give way. We are going to lose a lot of water; we are also going to lose lives if the building keeps standing there because we have high pressures. When the pipe blows off and people are in the house; somebody can die because of the burst”. Mr Scipio warned.

Nhyira News checks reveal the Municipal Assembly’s Statutory Planning Committee unanimously voted on September 3, 2015, to refuse grant of permit for the project.

Members were convinced the structure development will negatively affect water supply to the city contrary to an earlier decision by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly to okay the project.

Minutes of the Kumasi Planning Committee meeting on September 4, 2012, headlined, ‘Request for Change of Use from Reserve Land to Residential Purpose,’ gave approval.

Though the developer is now erecting pillars, records of the Technical Sub-Committee Site Inspection reveal the applicant had developed the site into dwelling unit.

“Site inspection conducted by the expanded Technical sub-committee revealed that, the applicant had developed the referenced site into a dwelling unit. The expanded Technical sub-Committee unanimously agreed that the application be approved subject to the payment of the appropriate penalty for developing without permit”.

Asokore Mampong Municipal Chief Executive, Nurudeen Hamidan, described the supposed KMA approval as fictitious because the Assembly has no authority to decide on land outside its jurisdiction.

 “It’s deceit of public office because the information that they put there to acquire the land with the lease are not correct,” Mr. Hamidan stated. “Assuming you acquired the land and you have the lease, it is the responsibility of the city authority to determine what kind of structure you built so at that time we made it clear to them that you fraudulently acquired the place because the place is reservation for pipes and electricity”. Mr Hamidan emphasized.

He says the Assembly will wait until the court hearing to decide the next line of action.

But a brother of the developer, Abu Sahabi later told Nhyira Fm he is surprised at the claims by the MCE and the Ghana Water Company.

He denied accusations of building on transmission pipelines.