Ghana might suffer Sierra Leonean mudslide - Civil Engineer warns after Weija flooding

Renowned Civil Engineer, Abdulai Mahama has raised concerns of Ghana experiencing a devastating mudslide if measures are not taken to resolve the land topography in the Weija area.

A heavy downpour over the weekend left Weija and its adjoining communities flooded, causing damage and restricting vehicular movement as heaps of sand had been washed onto roads.

According to him, these areas especially the roads were covered with heaps of sand and gravels because of the history of sand winning in the area which had made it a low lying area.

In an interview with Happy 98.9 FM’s Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, he stated that the government, in order to have prevented this from happening, should have reinstated the area after winning the place to prevent the end product we see, the possible mudslide.

Abdulai Mahama furthered, “The danger in all this is that if care is not taken, what happened in Sierra Leone about a year ago might happen in Ghana where in that case the whole stretch of the road will have to be closed”

In August 2017, Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown experienced a devastating mudslide and flooding that claimed over 400 lives while dozens who were missing were still presumed dead.

Many have referred to this disaster as man-made. Most of Freetown’s forest cover, which used to capture the rainfall, has been tampered with. The construction of houses is poorly regulated, and town planning is virtually non-existent.

Advising the government on how to revolve the perennial flooding, he said, “We need to cover the vegetation by planting more tress in the area and also permit minimum construction in the area to prevent further disturbances to the land’s structure. We might have then been able to prevent this from happening.”