Small Dome residents call for completion of drainage system

Residents of Small Dome, near the Ashongman Estates in Accra, on Tuesday, appealed to the Ga East Municipal Assembly, to ensure the immediate completion of ongoing works on a drainage system being constructed in the area.

This, they said, would avert any further tragedy as witnessed by residents some few days ago when a fence wall collapsed on three construction workers on the site at the weekend, killing two and leaving the other in a critical condition.

In a follow-up to the accident site this morning, the Ghana News Agency, gathered that days after the incident, the contractor was still not on working, leaving a dangerously opened and unfinished drainage system, which was filled with water from the previous rains.

Although the road was closed to vehicles, a few people who had no alternative route, had to wobble through the slippery and muddy clay path to their homes, while part of the debris from the broken wall still lay uncollected.

Mr Richard Osei, a driver and resident of the area, told the GNA that as it currently stands, any additional rains could cause massive flooding in the area, hence the need for the Assembly to oversee to the immediate completion of works on the drainage and road.

He explained that the contractor had been inconsistent with the work for some months now, and indicated that although the Assembly has issued a demolition notice for those walls to be removed, they were never pulled down.

He said it is believed that because the drains were dug too close to the walls, the stagnant water had weakened it causing its eventual collapse.

Mr Kofi Oteng, who is also a mason and resident of the area, said he saw the tragedy on the day, saying the contractor had brought in a caterpillar to clear the road to work to continue, but the wall collapsed on the three workers when they got into drain to work.

The Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Effia Tenge, the Head of the Public Affairs Unit of the Accra Regional Police, confirmed the incident to the GNA in an interview on Saturday.

She said the Police Unit on June 5, 2020, at about 0800 hours, received a distress call that a wall had collapsed on some workers at a road construction site in an area around the Ashongman Estates.

She said a team was quickly dispatched to the scene and found a male adult whose name was later given as Richard Ankrah lying dead in a gutter under construction; two other victims also identified as Richard Darko and Tommy Dogbenu, were said to have been rushed to the Ashongman Community Hospital, but Darko died shortly on arrival.

DSP Tenge said information received from the 37 Military Hospital where Dogbenu, 36, was later transferred indicates that he was seriously injured and was in a critical condition.