We will permanently solve flooding problem – Atta-Akyea
Mr Samuel Atta-Akyea, the Minister of Works and Housing has said Government has provided of amount GH¢ 17.3 million to ministry to help resolve the perennial flood problem in some part of the country.
He said President Akufo-Addo has realised the challenges of the crises and consequences of the destruction of properties and was committed to add an additional GH¢200 million.
He said government will do away with the process whereby monies are allotted for desilting each year which has not had not yielded positive results.
Mr Atta-Akyea said this when he addressed the media after inspecting some drains in selected flood prone areas in Accra together with officials of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly.
The areas visited were Nima drain behind Paloma Hotel, Adabraka Odaw drain, South Kaneshie drain, Odaw/Korle Lagoon, Sukura drain, Kaneshie First Light/Odorkor drain, Baale drain and Sakaman drain.
“Without a permanent solution, the cycle of allocating monies for desilting drains which will eventually be filled with rubbish will never end”.Over the years, floods that had destroyed lives and properties had been attributed largely to the choking of major drains with silt and garbage, a situation which forces rainwater to find its way into residential areas.
He said government was planning to introduce a nationwide underground sewage system to nib the menace in the bud.
He said the initiative forms part of President Akufo-Addo’s policy to address the poor sewage system in the country.
He indicated that the Ministry will open up most of the sewage projects for competitive bidding to world class engineers to work with local engineers to solve the problem.
He added that: ‘’and if it means we allot monies from the budget to pay for a long term loan to solve this problem once and for all we should commit ourselves to do it for posterity.
‘’This is a national project which has trans-generational consequences and everybody should be interested in it’’.
He said as the Meteorological Department has warned of intensive rains this year, and for that matter desilting which is a palliating solution will continue in the interim.
Source: GNA