Minister Akyea Rolls Out Plans to Mitigate Flooding

The Government of Ghana’s Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Samuel Atta Akyea, has announced plans to reduce the incidents of flooding across the country through channel improvement works, Ghana News Agency (GNA) reports. 

Briefing the media in Accra about some of those interventions, the Sector Minister said that the works are ongoing under the Ministry’s 2018 Flood Relief Works Program, where contracts had been awarded to contractors for concrete lining of some selected drains.

Additionally, there would be reconstruction of culverts and creation of channels in areas that were not properly defined, especially in flood-prone areas ahead of the 2019 raining season, said GNA.

He also added that plans were underway to dredge and de-silt choked drains, while channel improvement works had begun on some sections of the Odaw River, which had been the major cause of flooding in some areas in Accra.

The Ministry also had renewed the dredging contract with Messrs Dredge for two years and would embark on dredging exercise at lower section of the Odaw channel from Caprice to the Outfall Sea Bridge.

He said that these plans include disposal of the dredged materials in a proper way to landfill sites, in order to prevent them from being washed back to the channel.