The island’s boardwalks were not gravely affected by Tropical Storm Tomas that lashed the country last weekend. However, the heavy winds and rough seas left debris and a bed of sand along two of the island’s walkways.
The SATURDAY?SUN visited the boardwalks yesterday. On the south coast, workers of the National Conservation Commission (NCC) were busy clearing sand, leaves and other washed-up debris from that boardwalk which stretches from Accra Beach to St Matthias Gap, Hastings, Christ Church.
According to Ansel Layne, supervisor for the team based in that area, they started cleaning the boardwalk on Sunday but it was not until Thursday that his team was able to get back to their “regular routine”.
He said while therem had been no damage to the walkway, the sand was “the problem”.
“We are now getting back to normal. We tried to get off the debris first from top of the boardwalk to bottom, but the sand was the problem.
“We only started to do our regular routine yesterday [Thursday].
We just tried to get off the debris first,” he said.
“It was mostly filled with sand but all of us came together and cleared the sand. We shovelled it off back to the shoreline. We raked the leaves and other debris.”
The workers normally begin their beautification job from as early as 6:30 a.m.
In the west, the boardwalk which runs along Holetown was not yet cleaned.
When the SATURDAY?SUN got there around midday, sections of the walkway were inaccessible as they were coverednin sand, and NCC?workers could not say when it would be cleaned.
An officer at the Coastal Zone Management Unit said the boardwalks on the west and south coasts, for which the unit would carry out engineering work, “were designed to withstand harsh weather” conditions and “there was no damage”. (MM)
