We need drains to save lives, properties - Otodjor residents

Residents of Otodjor, a community near the Dansoman SSNIT Flats in Accra, are calling for the immediate provision of drains to save their lives and properties.

The community, on low-lying land, gets inundated anytime it rains, suffering a massive loss of property and quality of life in the last few weeks.

Madam Yvonne Ofosua Mensah, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the entire community did not have a drainage system, and since the rains began, they had not only lost several belongings but vacated their homes to save their lives.

"We need just one big drain to avert all this flooding. I can count the number of times I have begged the authorities to give us one drain, but nothing has been done," she said.

Narrating her ordeal and frustration during a washing and cleaning activity after a rainfall, Madam Mensah, told the GNA that the neglect of fixing their problem had exacerbated their plight.

In a tone of despair, she said she was wondering if the state were waiting for their deaths before it would construct drains within the communities, adding that they were lucky not to have been electrocuted.

"Those responsible for constructing drainage systems have neglected the community. We sleep outside. We need drains and not blankets, cups, and sachet water," she noted.

Mrs. Rosemary Amakye Aboagye, who had spent the whole day drying up her family's clothes at the entrance of a church building, told GNA that anytime they reported the flooding situation, all they were told was that the land is a wetland.

"Are we not Ghanaians just like others in the country, so why must our leaders pretend not to be seeing what is happening to us? We just need drains and is that one too beyond the State's financial strength," she said

Papa Nii Teyefio Borketey said they were tired of the empty assurances received over the last six years.

"We always get leaders who come around to inspect the damage but that amounts to zero, and for over six years the situation had been the same,"