New park for Ghana around Korle Lagoon

The Ghana Wildlife Society had announced that it intends to build a second park in Accra in the Korle Lagoon restoration area.

It will take about five years to complete the project before it can be handed over to the city. Some 800 trees were planted in the area at the beginning of June to mark World Environment Day. More will be planted in October and then again in 2011 in the rainy seasons of June and October.

The GWS hopes to have support from corporate sponsors to buy the seedlings and help with the maintenance and irrigation of the plants as they grow. So far Toyota Ghana is the first sponsor to come forward.

The restoration of the Korle Lagoon, which is heavily polluted with industrial and human waste, has taken the best part of the last decade. Dredging has been hampered by the construction of buildings and squatting scrap dealers along the shores of the lagoon. As the restoration involves the relocation of most of these activities there have been numerous protests in recent years from people living and working around the waterway.

Korle Lagoon runs into the sea not far from two important medical schools, the University of Ghana Medical School and the Korle Bu teaching hospital, which is one of the best health care facilities in the country.

Work on the restoration of the lagoon, part of which has been financed by Kuwaiti money and the Arab Bank, should be completed by 2011.