Let’s address the twin challenges of poor waste management and flooding –Cecilia Dapaah

The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, has said that by 2030 over 400,000 additional people in Ghana will live below the poverty line because of climate change and climate-related issues.

She further said a significant number of houses along the coast have been washed away, and the trend will continue in selected areas if drastic action is not taken to address the twin challenges of Poor Waste Management and Flooding.

The Sanitation Minister said this in a keynote address read on her behalf by Mr. Joseph Obeng-Poku, a Director at the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources during the bi-annual Week Celebration of Ghana Consulting Engineers on Tuesday, December 3, 2019 at the Engineers Centre, Roman Ridge, Accra.

“The Environmental sanitation challenges facing Ghana are fast-becoming endemic, and there is an urgent need to decisively deal with them since they have socio-economic and public health implications on the good people of Ghana”, Mr. Obeng-Poku added.

The Deputy Minister for Works and Housing, Hon. Eugene Boakye Antwi, MP for Subin who deputised for sector minister Samuel Atta Akyea, also added that his ministry is convinced that we are at a stage in the life of the nation when there is need to take a critical look at how we design and construct our drainage systems. He called for training enough drainage engineers to design, supervise and build quality drainage interconnecting systems for the country.

Eugene Antwi said his ministry is advocating for the consideration of a subterranean drainage system to replace the existing open drainage systems currently in existence. He added that it is the role of Ghana Consulting Engineers to assess its workability and try to incorporate this technology into designs moving forward. He admonished Consulting Engineers that they should refuse projects which inhibit wetlands and block waterways.

In his welcome address the President of Ghana Consulting Engineers Association (GCEA), Ing. Isaac Addai, said for their Week Celebration they have chosen the topic ‘Tackling the Recurrence of Flooding and Management of Solid Waste in Ghana; The Role of Consulting Engineers and Stakeholders’ because the challenge of managing flooding and solid waste has become critical and a headache to the managers of major cities in Ghana.

“We believe as an association that we have a role to play in addressing these challenges, hence our decision to have this topic for our Week Celebration. We have assembled a team of very experienced and knowledgeable Engineering Experts to present technical papers on how best we can solve or mitigate the impact of these challenge,” Ing. Isaac Addai added.

The Ghana Institution of Engineering (GhIE) gave their fraternal message to Consulting Engineers through their Immediate Past President (IPP), Ing. Steve Amoaning-Yankson. Also present at the ceremony were the Executive Director of GhIE, Ing. Kwabena Agyei Agyepong; IPP of GCEA, Ing. Albert Ogyiri; GCEA Council members, Past Presidents of GCEA, high-profilespeakers, Accra Market women groups and the GCEA member-firms.