A Senior Lecturer in the Department of Archaelogy and Heritage Studies at the University of Ghana,Dr. Samuel Nkumbaan has called for strict enforcement of laws requiring Environmental Impact Assessment, specifically archaeological and cultural heritage impact assessment, before undertaking major developments in the country.
Dr. Samuel Nkumbaan bemoaned the practice where major development projects are embarked on without engaging in general environmental impact assessment and specific cultural heritage assessment, as shrines, ancestral places, belief systems, livelihoods and biodiversity may be affected.
According to the Senior Lecturer, such documentation must be done ahead of any major development to inform the nature and scope of the project and to ensure that sensitive cultural landscapes are protected.
Dr. Nkumbaan was speaking in an interview with Daily Analyst on Tuesday,October 21,2026 noting that even if local legislative instruments do not adequately emphasize the requirement, Ghana is a signatory to international conventions including UNESCO conventions and other statutory engagements that make such assessments mandatory.
Dr. Nkumbaan pointed out that the Environmental Protection Authority Act references the need for these impact assessments and called on developers who have not considered them to rethink and ensure that both general environmental and specific cultural heritage assessments are conducted.
The Senior Lecturer warned of the dangers of communities rising against developers when projects touch what they consider culturally essential or spiritually sensitive, citing the situation faced by the Bui Power Authority when three communities resisted relocation due to failure to conduct cultural and heritage impact assessment.
Dr. Nkumbaan recalled a similar incident in the Ashanti Region around Fomena where a road construction project was blocked by community members because it was to pass through a shrine, stressing that such resistance is common in Ghana, Africa and globally.
He said mitigation is possible through negotiation with community members, including relocating shrines or agreeing on protective measures to ensure both the community and the developer have peace, advising that cultural and heritage impact assessment must be treated as a matter of importance.
By Prosper Kwaku Selassy Agbitor
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