The decongestion exercise is also aimed at sanitising the space at the canoe basin to create a conducive environment for dredging the facility in the near future.

As part of the decongestion exercise, a number of abandoned broken canoes and unauthorised structures around the area were cleared.

Ms Adlina Amoyaw, the Operations Manager at the Tema Fishing Harbour, said GPHA decided to embark on the exercise to give it the space to measure the basin, which was seen as the entrance of the fishing harbour.

Ms Amoyaw said the measurement would help management to assess and decide on whether there was a need to dredge it, saying that it had become difficult to do so due to the many broken canoes left in the sea, as well as some unwanted structures located around the canoe basin.

Mr Isaac Tawiah, the Marketing and Public Affairs Manager at the Tema Fishing Harbour, said that initiative was in line with the GPHA’s objective to create a safe, and healthy environment for fishing activities at the harbour.

He the fishing harbour and by extension, the canoe basin, was an important visiting site to several people from across the world, hence the urgency to make sure that everything was in order at the place.