The Minister for Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye, has said that the government has spent GH¢450 million in the last five years as part of efforts to fight to address flooding in the country.
According to him, government has provided some remedial measures to reduce the effect of flooding by investing in expansion of drains.
He made this known while touring some flood-prone areas in Accra following floods from Saturday night’s downpour.
He said, “What we’ve done is to provide some remedial measures, and that is to mitigate the effects of the huge running water. In the last five years, the government has spent GH¢450 million to invest in the expansion of the drains including digging deep and concrete lining and that is to increase the drain capacity to carry more storm water… There are some causes of flooding; indiscriminate dumping of solid waste in our drains and the haphazard development of our communities [which must be checked]. Those buildings in unauthorized places should be removed,” citinewsroom.com quoted Asenso-Boakye.
He added that government has secured some funds for some intervention to the taken within the Odaw basis to solve the issues of flooding with the basin.
“Government secured a funding of $200 million funding to implement some interventions within the Odaw basin… We are about to start the construction under the project, which is an inter-ministerial project. I am very confident that when the project is finished, it will solve the issue of flooding within the Odaw basin”.
On Saturday May 21, an over five hours of heavy rainfall in Accra caused severe flooding and disrupted activities in many parts of the capital city and beyond.
Some of the affected areas included the Tetteh Quarshie Interchange, Spintex, Madina road, the Sahara Park in Adabraka, Ablekuma, parts of Teshie, the Obetsebi Lamptey roundabout, and parts of Dzorwulu.
Source: ghanaweb
