General News of Friday, 24 May 2019

Source: ghananewsagency.org

TWMA to demolish structures on waterways

Adwoa Amoako, MCE, Tema West Municipal Assembly presenting the motorbikes to the Agric department Adwoa Amoako, MCE, Tema West Municipal Assembly presenting the motorbikes to the Agric department

The Tema West Municipal Assembly (TWMA) will soon demolish structures on waterways to pave way for rainwater to flow freely into local drains.

Mrs Adwoa Amoako, Tema West Municipal Chief Executive, announced this on Wednesday in a sessional address during the second ordinary meeting of the Assembly.

Mrs Amoako said her outfit had marked structures to be demolished on waterways, green belts and wetlands as part of measures to prevent flooding in the area.

She added that a visit by her together with other officials to flood-prone areas in the Municipality revealed that the drainage connecting Sakumono into the sea had been filled with heaps of refuse thereby blocking the flow of water into the drain.

To address the challenge, she stated that the Assembly was funding the dredging and desilting of drains and evacuation of refuse at Communities 17, 18, 19 and 20 as well as Klagon, Devtraco and Sakumono village.

She said the TWMA would procure and stockpile relief items for disaster victims while it strengthened its sensitization exercises to mitigate disaster in the area.

Answering questions on what the Assembly was doing about the perennial flooding of the “under bridge” linking Klagon to Ashaiman, she stated that it was a worrying situation as her outfit was aware of the danger it posed to both residents and commuters whenever it rained.

Mrs Amoako stated that TWMA had sent an estimate to the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) for its construction adding that officials of the GHA had also visited the place and was working on rectifying the issue.

Touching on sanitation, she said since the creation of the Assembly, her outfit had undertaken a number of activities to improve sanitation in the Municipality as well as to complement government’s commitment to improving the sanitation situation in the country and to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa by year 2020.

According to her, cleaning of public places, evacuation of heaps of refuse in about 80 unauthorized dumping sites, enforcing national and assembly’s by-laws were on course.

She indicated that TWMA was also maintaining repairs and expansion of sanitation infrastructure, enhancing public education and sensitization with development partners under the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) Sanitation project in the provision of institutional and household toilets.