President Mahama (left) being briefed during his tour of flood prone areas in Accra
President John Dramani Mahama has ordered the restoration of a ramsar site and a water retention basin at Mallam Junction in Accra.
The site which lies beneath the Mallam Junction Interchange has virtually been filled with gravel and turned into a plane field in readiness for habitation by the private firm, Caitec Motors.
“Remove all (the gravels you have deposited here). Take it back to where you brought it from at your own cost,” President Mahama ordered on Wednesday.
The President’s order followed a briefing given him by the Chairman of Government’s Anti-flooding Task Force and Deputy Chief of Staff, Stan Xoese Dogbe, when he embarked on a working tour of some flood-prone areas in the capital.
The tour was in anticipation of the wet season and comes on the back of an aerial recce by the task force about a fortnight ago.
The tour took the President and his entourage to other flood-prone areas including Achimota, Kaneshie First Light, and Odawna at Circle.
Mr Dogbe explained that as a result of the encroachment on the water course, houses downstream at Sakaman and adjoining communities get flooded at the least downpour.
“Mr President, we can do all the clearing upstream but if this siltation stays, (the flooding around this area will continue and probably worsen),” Stan Dogbe reported to the President.
To this end, President Mahama said the siltation of the water retention area posed a danger not only to properties but human lives.
He said it was not because the Government does not have sympathies for businesses but the environmental by-laws needed to be enforced without fear or favour.
He took a dig at the Ga South Municipal Assembly for looking on for a restricted area to be filled with gravel.
“Can you imagine the volume of water this place alone can hold when it rains? If you fill it up and say there should be a drain passing through, the drain cannot contain the amount of water,” he noted.
At the Kaneshie First Light, President Mahama urged contractors to speed up drainage works ahead of the rainy season.
He called on dredging contractors at the Odaw River to accelerate their work to mitigate flooding the enclave sees during downpours.
President Mahama’s field visit comes two days after he warned at the Eid prayers on Monday that buildings in water ways and other unauthorised places would be pulled down.
Source: GhanaianTimes
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