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The government has spent 230 million ¢ over the past four years to provide adequate drainage systems across the country to tackle the perpetual flooding in parts of the country.
Housing Minister Francis Asenso-Boakye, who revealed this in Accra after visiting some large drainage projects in some flood-prone areas on Tuesday, the government said, remained committed to providing more resources to the sector to deal with the the threat.
“The government has committed a lot of resources, especially within the administration of Nana Akufo-Addo. Over the past four years the government has spent GH ¢ 230 million on drainage alone and you have seen the dredging work in Odawna being carried out by Dredge Masters. In fact, I am amazed at the work accomplished so far.
“This annual dredging helped the country avoid another major flood. The government will continue to commit resources to address the flooding problem, ”said the Minister.
The tour was supposed to allow the minister to assess projects under the ministry in order to make informed decisions.
Project sites visited included the Accra Sanitary Project, Sewerage, Stormwater Drainage Allleviation (AS3DAP), Santa Maria Drainage Project, Mallam Drainage Project and Apenkwa Drainage Project, all under the 2018 National Flood Control Program.
At the Accra Stormwater Drainage, Sanitation and Sanitation Reduction Project (AS3DAP) which involves the dredging of the Odaw River and Korle Lagoon, the Director of Operations of Dredge Masters, Mr. Sena Adiepena , the company responsible for drying out the Korle Lagoon, said it was currently in the third phase of the project, adding that 60 percent of the work had been completed.
He said the presence of squatters on the shores of the lagoon, however, was preventing the successful implementation of the project and called on city authorities to urgently intervene to remedy the situation.
Mr Adiepena was optimistic the country would experience no form of flooding this year, especially in and around the lagoon with the onset of the rains.
“By entering the rainy season, by the work in progress and what we want to achieve, we do not foresee any flooding except in the event of abnormal rains. Even though the metrology office has indicated that we are at risk of experiencing rain, we cannot say it in the extreme, but for minimum to medium precipitation, we believe that we will not have a problem with flooding due to our presence in the field and continuous dredging, ”he said. .
At the Santa Maria, Mallam, Apenkwa Drainage Projects, Seth Kudzordzi, head of drainage engineering, hydrological services department, said work on all three projects has so far been successful and has helped to curb the recurrence of flooding in beneficial areas.
He said, however, that the presence of a building near the edge of the project had hampered the progress of work on the Santa Maria drainage project and called on the Minister and the Assembly to help the Department resolve the issue so that work begins.
Since the floods and fires of June 3, 2015, which killed more than 150 people and damaged properties, the government has implemented a number of measures, including the annual dredging and stripping of major sewers in the country, in especially in the capital to prevent similar disasters.
Mr Asenso-Boakye congratulated Dredge Masters for the quality of the work done so far and called on Ghanaians to be more responsible in the management and disposal of waste to complement the government’s efforts to avoid the repetition of such disasters.
“Government alone cannot solve the flooding problem if, as a country, we do not behave responsibly. I therefore urge our fellow citizens and Ghanaians to be more responsible in the disposal of solid waste ”, declared the Minister.
He called on district assemblies to strictly enforce various planning laws and building codes to address some of the concerns.
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