Sanction illegal surveyors operating in the country – Dr. Arko-Adjei clamours

By Selorm GBORBIDZI, Accra

The President of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors (GhIS), Surveyor Dr. Anthony Arko-Adjei, has called for quack surveyors or surveyors practicing illegally in the country to be sanctioned, to sanitise the surveying profession in the country.

He admitted that there are currently a number of people practicing as surveyors without the requisite training. He stated that there is the need for punitive laws to bring such people to book.

He said, “not everybody you see around with instruments is a surveyor. Many of the people you see around have not trained. Unfortunately for us, we don’t have the law on our side to deal with those people, and even if you want to discipline the person and he says ‘I’m no more a member of the Institution, do you chase the person to beat him up? We need laws to bring those so called surveyors to book. Punish them for what they are doing, and that is what we hope the government will help us to do.”

He cautioned the public against patronizing the services of such unlicensed practitioners. He disclosed the GhIS will soon issue stamps to members of the Institution to enable them identify the professional surveyors.”

He made this call in an interview with Zed News at the end of a week-long conference of the International Federation of Surveyors in Accra.

Dr Arko-Adjei noted that one impediment to solving the nation’s environmental challenges has been the lack of commitment towards finding permanent solutions to these challenges.

He said, “there is a gap between those who do policy and those who do the work itself, especially even at the tertiary institutions. Elsewhere, issues like flooding are issues that are given to the academic institutions to do good research and come out with solutions that we can rely on.”

The GhIS President said that the focus of the organisation is to ensure ethical behaviour of its members.

At the same event, The President of the Licensed Surveyors Association of Ghana, Reverend Engineer Samuel Larbi Darko, advocated for the deployment of geologists and surveyors in the battle to curb the environmental degradation occasioned by illegal mining in the country.

He indicated that if surveyors and geologists could be deployed to identify mineral rich tracts of land for mining, it would curb the widespread devastation that illegal miners engage in, in their gold prospecting activities.

With this done, it would be easier to punish persons who go beyond the set boundaries.

He suggested that an agreement be entered into with persons operating in the galamsey fields to get them regulated and operating within the rules and within bounds, they would cooperate.

Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Jinapor, said the government has taken bold steps to promote an efficient and effective land administration that takes into consideration the competing needs for land by the various sectors of the economy.

This, he said, includes the enactment of a new Land Act, 2020 (Act 1036), which revises and consolidates all the various laws on land in the country.

The Ministry is also implementing an Urban Redevelopment Scheme, through which several prime lands in our urban areas are being redeveloped to ensure judicious use of land, and contribute to building sustainable cities and communities, in accordance with Goal 11 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Efficient land management, surveying and spatial planning, he noted, are crucial to winning the fight against climate change.

“We cannot build resilient and prosperous cities and communities without robust mapping, land use planning, and sustainable resource management,” he concluded.