The Weija Dam, which serves as a source of water supply to western and central parts of Accra and the eastern parts of the Central Region, faces looming collapse if the illegal structures in its catchment area are not demolished immediately, a security report has indicated. Following such a bleak report, the second phase of an exercise by the Weija Municipal Assembly to pull down illegal structures is scheduled to begin in communities such as Tomefa, Joma, Agbozume and Afoama. According to the security report made available to journalists who visited the dam site on Saturday, the collapse of the dam could cause the water from the reservoir to flood the western and central parts of Accra and wash substantial portions of those parts into the sea. “If the encroachment and other activities such as stone quarrying within the gorges of the dam are not stopped, there is the possibility of a dam break which will release the entire water in the reservoir onto the main land,” the report said. As the way forward, the report supported the ongoing demolition exercise being undertaken by the Weija Municipal Assembly. “The Weija catchment area must be re-demarcated and all structures in the prohibited zone must be demolished to save the dam from collapse. It is better to demolish a few illegal structures than to lose a whole township and hundreds of lives,” the report recommended. A source at the Weija Municipal Assembly told journalists that the committee working on the demolition exercise was expected to meet on Wednesday, to finalise the details of the next phase of the demolition that would mainly affect structures in Tomefa, described as an illegal settlement, and surrounding areas. The committee, chaired by the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Armah Ashietey, has members from the Regional Coordinating Council, the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, the Lands Commission, the Water Resources Commission and the National Security. The Weija Dam was originally constructed over the Densu River in 1952 and had the capacity to contain five million cubic metres of water at a time to supply to the western and central parts of Accra. The original dam was washed away due to excessive flooding in 1968 and was reconstructed in 1973. Fed by the Densu River, the reservoir formed behind the dam covers an area of 29.3 square kilometres, and at the normal level of 47 feet, it provides a storage capacity of 115 million cubic metres (25.3 billion gallons) of water. Currently, the dam and the treatment plant produce about 64 million gallons of water which is supplied to the western, eastern and central parts of Accra as well as the eastern parts of the Central Region. To protect the reservoir, the dam and the buffer zone and to minimise the effects of possible flooding, the government in 1977, under the State Lands Act, 1962 (Act 125), acquired a total area of 13,580 acres around the site, for which compensation was duly paid. According to the security report, the people of Joma were resettled outside the acquired area, after which in 2004, the family of Joma won a judgement for the payment of their compensation. Consequently, in 2007, the Lands Commission offered to pay the compensation. The family of Joma accepted the final settlement of GH¢2,820,827, which was subsequently paid by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning The report said the Tomefa area was an illegal occupation. “The people of Tomefa settled at their present location long after the catchment area was acquired and all affected persons resettled. Therefore, the Tomefa settlement is an encroachment and the issue of compensation does not arise,” the report said. During a visit to the catchment area by a team of newsmen at the weekend, it was found that many developers in Tomefa and surrounding areas had encroached on acres of the buffer zone by building there, disregarding demarcations and warnings by the GWCL. Pillars built by the GWCL to demarcate the prohibited area beyond which people should not build were found to have been destroyed by the encroaching developers. The lake’s water in the reservoir was found to have turned green due to excessive pollution from the activities of people in the encroached buffer zones and the banks of the lake, leading to high cost of water treatment at the Weija treatment plant. In addition, most of the forest cover within the catchment area has been removed by the encroachers to make way for the construction of houses and farming purposes, leading to increased silting of the lake. Also, a high number of commercial activities, including fuel stations, factories, garages, stone quarries and mechanised farms, were found sited in the buffer zone, contributing to the pollution of the lake. The effect, according to officials at the Weija Treatment Plant, was that the holding capacity of the reservoir kept dwindling, and for the GWCL to get enough water to treat and supply, the dam had to be dredged at a very high cost.