A Ghana Building and Road Consultant has predicted that the perennial flooding in Accra will continue to persist and even worsen in the coming years because of the nature of the capital city.
Identified as Abdulai Mahama, the expert said the indiscriminate and irresponsible development of buffer areas around the Aburi Mountain and other surrounding municipalities to Accra would make the city more vulnerable to flood without the rain falling.
“If you look at McCarthy Hill, Amasan, Pokuase, Kwabenya, Brekusu, Teiman, Abokobi, Oyarifa and Ayi Mensah; these are the communities that are unfortunately going to give Accra a hell of problem in terms of flooding over the coming years” he mentioned to Alfred Ocansey on 3FM Sunrise Morning Show.
According to him, Accra by nature is a low land area and this is why the problem will need a systematic approach before the flooding can be solved or at least reduce to the barest minimum.
“I am emphasizing that it will get to a time, we will not have rains in Accra but Accra will flood when it rains in the nearby towns. We can expand the Odaw drain into two folds in terms of capacity yet we cannot contain the volume of water from upstream. The Odaw River is filled with about 80% silt and with the exception that we have about 10% polythene saturated”
Mahama expressed worries over how government and local authorities ignore the advice of technocrats and professionals with impunity.
“For the first time in the history of Ghana, when we had rains this year, we had a total blockade of the Accra bound stretch of the Mallam Kasoa route for almost 72 hours. We are just lucky the rain has not intensified” Ing. Mahama said.