AMA to Demolish 150 Unauthorised Houses

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) in its bid to make Accra a flood free zone would have to demolish over one hundred and fifty buildings in the metropolis to allow for construction of drains in flood prone areas. Some of the houses identified to have impeded the drainage system have already been demolished while others are in the pipeline.

Mr. Solomon Darko, the AMA Chief Executive made this known in a tour with the press after the torrential rain that hit the metropolis on Sunday night.

Mr. Darko admitted that there cannot be a total elimination of flood in Accra but efforts and logistics are in place to minimize it. He said the manner in which some structures are put up in the city impedes efforts to make Accra a flood free area.

He said last year, the government granted them a loan of five million dollars, which was used to construct the first phase of the drains, covering 3.2 km on the Avenor Odaw River. They would still need about six million dollars to continue the second phase of the project on Onyasia River, which passes by the Tetteh Quarshie Roundabout through Dzorwulu.

Mr. Darko said three billion cedis has already been used to disilt and dredge primary and secondary drains in the city.

Some of the places, which are prone to flooding every year had not flooded because they had been desilted and dredged earlier by the AMA. These areas included; Osu Regal Cinema, the Legon Bridge, Dzorwulu and Santa Maria.

At Otorjor a suburb of Dansoman the situation was so serious that it took the Military and officials from the National Disaster and Management Organization (NADMO) hours to get victims out of the flood. Most buildings were submerged in the flood.

At Sakaman and Banana Inn residents had been flooded out and could not retrieve their belongings. Property worth millions of cedis was lost and several buildings and walls submerged in the water.

Many residents expressed disappointment with the way flood management is handled in the country. "We are always promised improvements which never come," one person lamented.