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With drowned canals and drains identified as the cause of the perennial floods in the capital city and other urban areas, the Minister of Works and Housing, Samuel Atta Akyea, has proposed the establishment of a ‘Drainage Bond’ to raise money for underground drains and other related infrastructure to permanently fix the problem.
Describing the proposal as radical, the Minister said that it would take at least $ 10 billion to build these underground drains to help deal with flooding during the rainy season.
“I am of the humble opinion that in the long term the construction of underground drains would be worthwhile rather than the country having to pay money for the annual disposal of drains and sewers,” he said.
Atta Akyea made the proposal on the sidelines of an exercise in parts of Accra to drain canals and drains.
The exercise, which is ongoing in Chemunaa, Sukura and the surrounding areas, all flood-prone areas in the capital, is a collaboration between the Ministries of Works and Housing, Local Government and Rural Development, Sanitation and Water Resources, Dredge Masters, Zoomlion Ghana Limited and the Assemblies.
The exercise aims to ensure that drains and gutters within communities are free to allow the easy flow of water to prevent floods that tend to destroy lives, property and livelihoods.
Accompanied by the Mayor of Accra, Mohammed Adjei Sowah, the CEO of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong, and some members of the assembly, the Minister toured the main flood-prone areas where the skinning was in course.
The tour took Mr. Atta Akyea to communities such as Chorkor Chemunna, the Borla Junction area, Shukura and Zamrama Line, all in the southern Ablekuma constituency, Greater Accra region.
He stressed that the construction of underground drains across the country will offer what he described as a “permanent solution” to the country’s perennial flooding and its attendant effects.
In addition, he explained that an underground drainage system would put all the gutters and drains underground, rather than the open drains that have been with us since independence.
He believed that this type of drainage system will prevent citizens from dumping garbage from their homes into open drains, causing sewers to drown in flooding.
In Chorkor Chemunna, Mr. Atta Akyea, the MP for the area, Dr. Alfred Okoe Vanderpuijie, the Mayor of Accra and Dr. Siaw Agyepong teamed up with the residents to strip the gutters of the community.
The Minister of Works and Housing attributed the incidence of putting rubbish down the drain to the Ghanaian subculture of creating rubbish.
He described this as a “bad habit” that punishes residents again in the form of mosquito breeding, dysentery, diarrhea due to mismanagement of the environment.
Accra Mayor Mohammed Adjei Sowah called on residents of the national capital to show positive attitudes towards their surroundings.
This, he said, included refraining from littering in open drains, littering indiscriminately and ensuring that his surroundings are always clean, adding that his attire would enforce statutes on the environment.
On the footbridge across the Chemu lagoon, which was recently destroyed, the mayor of Accra announced that plans were underway to build a concrete bridge that would also allow vehicles.
