President John Dramani Mahama has set-up a seven-member Anti-Flood Taskforce to address the perennial flooding situation in the country, under the Chairmanship of Mr Stanislav Xoese Dogbe, Deputy Chief of Staff at the Presidency in-charge of Operations.
Other members of the Anti-Flood Taskforce are Mr Kenneth Gilbert Adjei, the Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing; Mr Ahmed Ibrahim, Minister of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Abdul Osman Razak, National Security Coordinator; Mr Teddy Addi, Deputy Director-General of National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) and Madam Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, the Legal Counsel to the President and Secretary to the Taskforce.
The taskforce on Wednesday embarked on an aerial recce to assess flood-prone areas to gather essential data to prevent future flooding as part of its field activities. Some of the key areas visited by the Taskforce included Weija, Sakumono ramsar site and Tema Fishing Harbour area.
Mr Dogbe revealed that stricter actions would be implemented by the Government in its efforts to help address the perennial flooding situation in the country.
He announced that the local government along with the 48 Engineers Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces, would begin desilting drains with immediate effect adding that road recce (reconnaissance survey) would be done soon for a similar assessment.
Brigadier General Richard Kinney, the Commander of the Engineer Brigade of the Ghana Armed Forces, attributed long standing flooding in the capital to indiscipline on the part of some residents in flood prone areas and said key measures which would to be taken would include the prevention of building in water ways.
Mr Ahmed Ibrahim, the Minister of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affair, assured that the recce would be extended to other regions. “The rains will be setting in soon and permanent solutions should be taken. But in the interim, maintenance works like desilting must be the immediate step,” he said.
Source: GNA
