RFI

Ivory Coast: Controversy over new embankments in Markery over Abidjan Lagoon

In Abidjan, the backfill of the lagoon, these operations, which eventually aim to gain land over water by dumping sand, are eventually able to create new controversy. This time, it is in the town of Markori which is taking place in the Bietry district. A group of residents protested to build a strip of sand along the bank and work was halted by order of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs in charge of the lagoon. For several months with our correspondent, Pierre Pinto in Abidjan, a strip of sand 2 kilometers long and 200 meters wide has been built along the bank. According to him, a group of residents of this chic district of Ivorian economic capital are opposing these illegal and dangerous actions. The work has just been stopped by order of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs in charge of the lagoon. Since the end of January, every day two dredges extracting sand from under the lagoon have closed. According to the chairman of local residents’ collective, Bernard Darien, these works pose a risk of flooding in the district during the next rainy season. Season. And pose enormous environmental risks, especially to the lagoon. “We will, of course, take legal action to try to figure out what is going on. Because there was no Commodo Weight Incommodo investigation to warn of any work, nor any work from local residents To warn of… And, it seems, there is no authorization or compliance with the rules and decrees, and above all to apply for the restoration of the lagoon, as it were. ”The shortage is also economic. Waterfront homes The value of K is likely to fall. The hotel, one of which offers sport fishing, risks nothing at all in view of their activity. The mysterious operator is being worked on by a company, Jade Invest, headed by Justin. Akka has claimed that Biotry’s indigenous village in this district, Landlock, to create new land. The work financed by the mysterious economic operator. “Is a part that will be for the operator,” Justin Akah explains. The village does not have the means to finance all this, but the operator who is financed will have a counterparty, a piece of land which he will exploit as he wishes. But this is mainly for the expansion of the village. “And when the RFI asks about the identity of the operator:” This is a private operator. Allow me not to name, I did not have authorization to do so. “The work, which began several months ago, received an authorization from the Ministry of Maritime Affairs last December. The same maritime affairs stopped him in front of the sling a month later. listen Also listen: Lagun Ibri, mirror of Abidjan