Accra, Ghana – President John Dramani Mahama has attributed the recent flooding in Accra to human activities, particularly illegal construction and poor environmental practices.
During a tour of flood-prone areas in the capital, the President charged city authorities to enforce regulations without fear or favor to prevent further disasters.
Illegal Development at Mallam Junction
At Mallam Junction, President Mahama witnessed a disturbing case of illegal land use, where Caitec Motors had reportedly filled up a water retention basin, an area meant to absorb excess rainwater and prevent flooding.
Deputy Chief of Staff in Charge of Operations, Mr. Stanislav Dogbe, who also serves as Chairman of the Anti-Flood Task Force, expressed strong disapproval of the company’s actions, warning that such encroachments exacerbate the city’s flooding crisis.
President Orders Immediate Action
In response, President Mahama directed the military to assist the Regional Security Council (REGSEC) in ensuring that:
– Caitec Motors desilts the water retention basin and restores it to its original purpose.
– All illegal structures built on waterways across Accra are demolished to prevent future floods.
Full Speech: President Mahama’s Remarks at Mallam Junction:
“So like I said on Eid ul-Fitr day at the Black Star Square, a lot of the flooding in the city is caused by human activity. We are the problem. What is happening here does not affect the factories here.
The water comes from somewhere and once it can pass and continue it will back up and affect the communities beyond. These are streams that existed long before our grandfathers were born. They are streams that flow from the Akwapim Mountains and find their way to the sea.
Then we decided to come and build our capital city across the streams. So even if you build your capital city you must allow the streams (
to flow through. People have built and blocked it. If you build and block a stream the water will come.
But when it comes and it can’t pass, what will it do? It will flood its banks. That’s all that is happening in the city and that’s why we’re asking the regional minister and the district chief executives to take a very tough stand on people whose properties are blocking waterways because they’re creating distraction for other people’s properties and even loss of lives.
Sometimes when it floods heavily we lose human lives and so it’s not because we don’t have a sympathy for people like that but we must enforce the bylaws.
And the point is the assembly here, how did you sit and allow this to happen? How did the assembly allow this to happen? And that’s why you have the chief executive, you have assembly members, they must be conscious of all this.
These are waterways like he said. Can you imagine the volume of water that this place alone can hold when it rains? And so if you fill it up and you say there should just be a drain passing through, the drain cannot contain that water.
And so let’s do what we have to do. They should remove all this and it should be at the cost of the people who did it.
They should take this back where they brought it from. Thank you”.
Full Speech: President Mahama’s Remarks at Circle:
“We are in April and the rainy season is about starting. We know that in May-June is the climax of the rains in Greater Accra area.
These garage projects for desilting the major drains were given since last year. It is clear that all of them are behind schedule. And from what I have seen, these drains are not going to be ready before the rains open up. And if they aren’t, it means that we must expect that there will be severe flooding this season.
I would have thought that the contractors would take advantage of the dry season and work as quickly as possible so that we would have been ahead with these projects by now. But unfortunately that hasn’t happened.
And so we just have to caution citizens of Accra that there is going to be severe flooding because of the delay in these projects. But we have to do everything to alleviate destruction of property and loss of life as much as possible.
But I have charged the garage secretariat and the hydrology section and the ministry to pay constant attention to make sure that all the projects that have been awarded under garage to make Accra resilient from flooding are speeded up as quickly as possible so that we can minimize the flooding. These have to do with the major drains. But they are also the minor drains that feed water into the main drains.
And with some of those minor drains, it is just people building walls across or building their properties in the waterway. That is causing flooding to their neighborhood and all that.
And as I said on the day of the Eid al-Fitr, we are going to mark all those waterways. And any person whose property is in the waterway, their property will be taken out so that we can minimize the loss of life and destruction to property that occurs every year.
We cannot sit and throw our hands up in the air as if there is nothing we can do about it when we know the exact cause of what the flooding is. And so we are going to take this seriously. I’ve charged the minister. We are soon going to appoint the district chief executives and so the minister and the district chief executives must all survey their various districts and see what is hampering the flow of water through their districts.
And we will take measures to remove those obstructions in the waterway so that we can have a city that is resilient and where people every year, year in, year out continue to suffer destruction of their properties because of other people’s recklessness. So minister, you and your team look at this and work as quickly as possible.
Work as fast as possible before the main rains open up. After the rains subside, normally after July in Accra, the rains go down. And so we can see what work we can do. But in the dry season, we must take advantage and finish these projects as quickly as possible. Thank you very much”.
Story by: Emmanuel Romeo Tetteh(#RomeoWrites
) / Ahotoronline.com | Ghana 
