GOVERNANCE

‘Ghana needs $10b to construct subterranean drains…Minister

&NewLine;<p>Ghana Minister of Works and Housing&comma; Samuel Atta Akyea&comma; has disclosed that about US&dollar; 10 billion would be needed to construct subterranean drains to help deal with the country’s perennial flooding&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>According to him&comma; although a subterranean drain is capital-intensive&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;we do not have a choice&comma; adding that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;we would have to tackle this by going to the capital&sol;bond market to raise about US&dollar;10 billion to undertake such a project&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I am of the humble view that in the long-run constructing subterranean drains would pay off instead of the country having to pay more money for the yearly desilting of drains and gutters&comma;” he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Mr Atta Akyea made the observation while on a tour to kick-start an exercise of actively involving communities to desilt their gutters in flood-prone areas in Accra&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;05&sol;Drainage-1-1024x683&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-3220"&sol;><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The &OpenCurlyQuote;desilt choked gutters exercise’ is a collaboration between the Ministries of Works and Housing&comma; Local Government and Rural Development&comma; Sanitation and Water Resources&comma; Dredge Masters&comma; Zoomlion Ghana Limited and the Assemblies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>It is aimed at ensuring that the drains and gutters within communities&comma; especially flood-prone areas&comma; are free to allow easy flow of water to ward off floods which have the tendency to destroy lives&comma; properties and livelihoods&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The minister was accompanied by the Mayor of Accra&comma; Mohammed Adjei Sowah&comma; Executive Chairman of Zoomlion Ghana Limited&comma; Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong&comma; and some assembly members&period;&nbsp&semi;&nbsp&semi;&nbsp&semi;&nbsp&semi;&nbsp&semi;&nbsp&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The tour took Mr Atta Akyea to communities including Chorkor Chemunna&comma; Borla Junction area&comma; Shukura&comma; and Zamrama Line—all in the Ablekuma South Constituency&comma; Greater Accra Region&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>He stressed that constructing subterranean drains across the country will offer what he described as a &OpenCurlyQuote;permanent fix’ to the country’s perennial flooding and its attendant effects&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Furthermore&comma; he explained that a subterranean drainage system would put all the gutters and drains underground&comma; instead of open drains which have been with us since independence&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>He believed that this type of drainage system will prevent the prying eyes of recalcitrant citizens from tipping garbage from their homes into the open drains&comma; resulting in choked gutters with its attendant floods&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>At Chorkor Chemunna&comma; Mr Atta Akyea&comma; the MP for the area&comma; Dr Alfred Okoe Vanderpuijie&comma; the Mayor of Accra and Dr Siaw Agyepong joined hands with the residents to desilt the heavily choked gutters in the community&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>And while there Mr Atta Akyea lamented over the fact that most of the gutters and drains were choked&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;05&sol;Drainage-2-1024x683&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-3221"&sol;><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>He attributed this to the Ghanaian sub-culture of creating filth and tipping it into the gutters and drains&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>He described this as a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;bad habit” that comes back to punish residents in the form of breeding of mosquitoes&comma; dysentery&comma; diarrhea because of the poor management of the environment&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Mayor of Accra&comma; Mohammed Adjei Sowah&comma; admonished residents in the national capital to show positive attitudes towards their environs&period; These&comma; he said&comma; included refraining from throwing garbage into open drains&comma; indiscriminate littering and ensuring that their environs are always clean&comma; adding that his outfit would enforce the bye-laws on the environment&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>On the footbridge across the Chemu Lagoon which was destroyed recently&comma; the mayor<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>announced that plans were underway to build a concrete bridge which will enable cars to also ply on&comma; besides its use by residents&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Zoomlion Ghana Limited brought in personnel and waste management vehicles in support of the exercise&comma; while Dredge Masters’ workers were also seen busily desilting drains in the said communities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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