The Deputy Minister for Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development, Mr Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah has called on residents of Accra to change their behaviour towards waste disposal and make conscious choices regarding their building sites to help reduce the perennial flooding in the national capital.
He said this when he led a team to inspect some flood hotspots at Ayawaso Central, Ayawaso North, Ayawaso East and Ayawaso West Municipal Assemblies, part of the 17 beneficiary GARID Project in Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies where desilting works are being carried out.
Mr Adjei-Mensah Korsah said, “The huge investments of government in flood control programmes are being undermined by inappropriate behavior of some residents of Accra who engage in constructing buildings in waterways, and indiscriminate dumping of solid wastes which find their way into drains in the city.”
He noted that the implementation of the GARID Project’s interventions, and all other government flood mitigation measures would not succeed if such inappropriate behavior and underlying attitudes was not change.
“For flood mitigation to succeed, citizens must change their behavior. Our prospects as a city are grim if people do not change their attitudes towards solid waste management and their choices of building sites,” he emphasized.
He hinted that the Ministry has so far disbursed One Million Three Hundred Thousand Dollars ($1, 300,000) out of the over Three Million Dollars ($3,250,000) earmarked for disbursement to the 17 GARID project beneficiary Assemblies to use for desilting of local drains and other drainage improvement works.
The GARID Project Coordinator, Dr. Kwadwo Ohene Sarfoh, called on stakeholders to support government efforts in finding lasting solutions to flooding and solid waste management challenges in Accra.
He noted that government alone cannot solve the sanitation and flooding problems in the country.
“Our flood control programmes in the city can only yield the desired results if residents of Accra change their behavior; the Assemblies enforce the sanitation and building regulations, and the media help in sensitizing citizens to adopt the appropriate solid waste management and flood mitigation measures,” he added.
Grace Acheampong, ISD
