Flood Victims Up In Arms

FLOOD VICTIMS at Mataheko, New Abossey Okai road, a suburb of Accra, have begun mounting pressure on the Kufuor administration for the immediate removal of a structure which has continued to cause flooding in the area, resulting in millions of cedis damage of property.

The victims, who are mostly pensioners, are also calling on the ministers for Works & Housings and Roads & Transport to conduct an investigation into why a structure erected in the waterway, without a proper channel to allow the great volume of water to flow, has not been rectified since 1995, in spite of the several appeals made to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly and the City Engineers Department.

Expressing rage at the deplorable condition the structure continues to put the community in to the Chronicle, Tuesday this week, the victims said they found it very difficult to understand why an official authorisation for the demolition of the structure has not been carried out seven years after the order was issued.

Chronicle learnt from reports that one Akwesi Sarpong of Aduana Furniture Works, the supposed owner of the structure in question, allegedly stopped the demolition operation at that time.

His action, Chronicle further gathered had prevented the rainwater from flowing, thereby creating the perennial flooding in the area.

A visit to the area, which is directly opposite the Accra Academy School, stretching from the Bank of Ghana Flats to the Kenashie First Light, along the Kaneshie-Mallam Highway, saw an abandoned dug drainage which residents pointed to as the one that was stopped by Sarpong.

One of the pensioners, Madam Dorothy Baye, whose house stands directly before this gutter and among the worst affected, told Chronicle that when Mr. Sarpong started the construction, there were concerns raised that there were dangers ahead if he went on with the project but he ignored them.

Today, this older lady who could have enjoyed the rent returns from her ground floor apartment cannot, because it has become a reservoir for the collection of floodwater.

She is not the only one though; an elderly widow, and who spoke Ga, with the expression of anger on her face, called on the Kufuor administration to come to their aid.

In a petition dated June 17, 2002, and addressed to the afore mentioned ministers, including the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, and copied to the AMA, the residents demanded that an immediate action be taken to prevent further destruction of their property.

They told the ministers that even though there used to be flooding in the area, after the construction of the Kenashie-Mallam Highway by C.P and the City Engineers, never had its effect been so disastrous than when Mr. Sarpong erected this structure.

According to the petition, signed by Mrs. Dorothy Baye, Lt. Col. G.K Ainooson (rtd), Mrs. Monica Agyekum, Mr. Joseph Ofori, among others, Sarpong erected the structure without providing any proper channel to allow the great volume of rainwater flowing from Mataheko and Atico Junction to flow freely.

This, they said, has caused the inflow of the floods to reverse creating a massive volume of flooding at the junction and thereby causing great havoc to residents.

"Walls of our houses have collapsed, our rooms got flooded, acquired property destroyed and ground floor apartments of some houses have to been unoccupied," they said.

Meanwhile, several calls at the offices of the AMA to get comments proved futile, as Chronicle was told by the public relations officer (PRO) to call back because the petition had not reached his office yet.

An attempt to also get Mr. Sarpong's reaction failed, despite Chronicle leaving a contact number for him to call.