Dredging mitigating Accra floods – Mayor

The Mayor of Accra, Mohammed Adjei Sowah, has said the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has spent GHS1.5 million so far to ensure drains are continuously desilted and dredged to prevent flooding in the capital as the rains set in.

His comment comes after parts of Accra got flooded on Monday night due to a heavy downpour.

Areas such as Taifa, Dome, Kaneshie, Tema, among others, were flooded forcing some residents to seek shelter on top of their buildings.

Some streets also got flooded, forcing drivers to abandon their vehicles.

Reacting to this development on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class91.3FM on Tuesday, 19 June 2018, Mr Sowah said the AMA has put measures in place to prevent serious flooding this year as it has been happening in the past.

He told sit-in host of the EBS, Benjamin Akakpo that: “We’ve spent over GHS1.5million to ensure drains are continuously de-silted and also dredged to increase the flow of water anytime, before, during and after it rains and that’s why the whole of this year, we’ve not experienced any serious flooding.”

He, however, cautioned residents to stop throwing rubbish back into the drains after they have been dredged as it renders their efforts useless.

Mr Sowah further noted that the AMA will expand narrow drains it identifies in the capital and also fix caved-in drains across the capital.

The mayor noted that the Korle lagoon and the Odaw river will be dredged to accommodate more water since they are the two main channels that carry rain water from the capital into the sea.

He described Monday night’s flooding in some parts of Accra as “regrettable” but assured that the Assembly was working around the clock to prevent further flooding.