East Adenta citizens express concern over poor drainage system

Residents of Mai Momo Electoral Area in the Adenta Municipality, have expressed concern over key issues affecting their communities which centered mainly on the poor drainage in the East Adenta residential area resulting in flooding.

They expressed the concern at a forum organized and facilitated by the Adenta District Citizen Monitoring Committee (DCMD) formed by Intervention Forum (IF), a non-governmental organization, with support from SEND-Ghana Foundation, another NGO.

Madam Nora Ollenu, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of IF, said the main aim of the Committee was to promote good governance within the catchment area.

Madam Ollenu said she and her colleagues thought it wise, after several engagements with the various duty bearers, to create a platform and act as an intermediary for the residents of East Adenta on their most pressing needs and concerns.

She cautioned that the forum was not a platform to apportion blame or arguments but rather one for peaceful dialogue among all responsible parties to enable them to make progress.

Daudi Kasim, spokesman for the east Adenta Residents Association, presented a litany of concerns of the people to the forum attended by officials from the AdMA, Departments of Urban Roads, Town and Country Planning, and the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing.

Mr. Kasim listed some locations within the electoral area that posed danger to lives and property whenever it rained, and called for the construction of drains and culverts to prevent flooding.

He mentioned in particular, the stretch of road from the cemetery to SDA Junction, drains at the SDA Junction and the TOT-to-Teen school area as well as the drain from offices of the Department of Urban Roads area down to SDA Junction, extending to the Wintata Hotel.

Mr. Akwasi Owusu-Afriyie, an official of the Town and Country Planning Department, explained the problems encountered by his outfit and urged the residents to pass vital information concerning the erection of illegal structures or structures built on waterways that could impede water flow to cause flooding whenever it rained.

Mr. Caesar Sackey of the Urban Roads Department and Mr. Victor Mensah from the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, called for the cooperation of members of the East Adenta Residents Association to hold such forums regularly to find solutions to the problems affecting them.

Madam Ollenu later told the GNA in an interview that the DCMC and IF had made it a routine to visit the communities and assess problems affecting the residents, after which they organized meetings to discuss them.

She said it had become necessary to encourage the residents to form associations to better coordinate and resolve their problems, adding that where some of these associations had become moribund, they were making efforts to revamp them.**