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President John Dramani Mahama has directed the military to support the Greater Accra Regional Security Council (RESEC) in ensuring that Caitec Motors desilts the Pambrose Ramsar site.
In addition, they are to ensure that buildings in waterways in other areas were all pulled down as part of efforts to address the perennial floods in the nation’s towns and cities. Ramsar sites, designated wetlands of international importance, are crucial for biodiversity conservation, supporting sustainable use of wetland resources, and promoting ecosystem services like flood protection and tourism.
However, a visit by President Mahama to the Pambrose Ramsar Site on Wednesday revealed that Caitec Motors had walled a large area of the wetland near Mallam Junction in Accra, filling it with rocks and gravels for the purpose of construction works. These activities by the Company among others have reduced the volume of the wetland, which usually serves as a buffer area for the retention of flood waters from the McCarthy Hills area of Accra west and beyond, before they are gradually released into the sea by nature.
As a result of these activities downstream, communities upstream in the western part of Accra get flooded easily at the least rains, which sometimes leads to the destruction of lives and properties. President Mahama President speaking during his visit to the Pambrose Ramsar Site, again reiterated his message to Ghanaians during this year’s Eid Al-Fitr prayers at the Black Star Square in Accra, that a lot of the floodsin the City was 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’t pass and continue, it will back up and affect the communities beyond,” he said. “These are streams that existed long before our grandfathers were born. They are streams that flow from the Akuapem Mountains and find their way to the sea. Then we decided to come and build a capital city across the streams. So even if you build your capital city, you must allow the streams to flow.
He explained that this was why they were asking the Regional Minister and the District Chief Executives in the affected areas to take a very tough stance on people whose property were blocking waterways. This, he said was because they were creating distractions for other people’s property and even loss of lives. “Sometimes when it floods heavily, we lose human lives. And so it’s not because we don’t have 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.”
The President noted that these waterways; asking that “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.” As part efforts to restore the encroached Ramsar Site, the President directed the RESEC to collaborate with the military to get the company desilt the area.
“And so let’s do what we have to do. We should remove all this. And it should be at the cost of the people, who brought it here. They should take this back where they brought it from,” the President said. The President, who inspected construction works on major drains in the city such as the Achimota and the Kaneshie drains, urged contractors to expedite work on the projects as the rainy season was fast approaching, as part of efforts to avoid flooding.
President Mahama also inspected the ongoing desilting of the Odaw River at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle and urged the contractor to speed up the pace of work; warning that further delays in desilting major drains and construction works on drains could lead to flooding in the City as the rainy season was fast approaching.
Source: GNA
