The National People’s Party (NPP) government has yet to react to allegations in some quarters that it allocated a vast TDA wetland area to investors, who only exist on paper.
The government has also reportedly greenlighted the construction of a perimeter in the high-end tourist area.
However, the Gambia government has been doing a poor job in dealing with the deepening public suspicion around the entire allocation and the ongoing construction there.
The Gambia’s wetlands around the Tourism Development Area (TDA) are fast-disappearing as the government continues to greenlight more developments on the TDA’s few remaining wetlands.
The wetlands serve as critical bird habitats and also provide critical balance in the country’s biodiversity.
As the Barrow-led administration shows no sign of a let-up in selling critical national infrastructures such as the Senegambia Bridge, the port infrastructure, Gamtel/Gamcel and the airport, critical biodiversity components such as wetlands have also been State-allocated for construction of concrete jungles.
As environmentalists still rue the encroachments on the wetlands in Banjul, where the government allowed businessman Hadim Gai to construct an inland container depot for rent to the GPA at a reported cost of US$50,000 per month, more wetland encroachments have also been happening at the TDA.
One such development is unfolding just behind the Gambia Tourism Board in Kotu.
Sources informed JollofNews that a huge chunk of the wetland was purportedly allocated to some foreign investors, who started to put up a perimeter there.
“But some Gambian authorities insisted that the work must cease until the investors appear in flesh and blood because there was a suspicion that the allocation was fraudulent,” one source told this medium.
The “invisible” foreign investors, according to another reliable source, failed to present themselves to the relevant authorities.
“This occasioned the cancellation of the allocation by the relevant authorities,” the source said.
JollofNews can confirm that the construction was nontheless in progress.
The purported foreign investors are reportedly being represented in The Gambia by a senior lawyer. Effort to reach him up to the time of this post proved fruitless.
The GTboard was also approached by this reporter.
