Shama District prepares to prevent floods

The Shama District Assembly, is giving the district a facelift in an exercise that is also meant to prevent disasters like flooding during every rainy season.

In this regard, the Department of Town and Country Planning in collaboration with the ‘Hen Mpeano' Initiative, a local NGO on the environment, together with the Jubilee Partners have embarked on the development of a Spatial Plan for the district.

Mr Enoch Kojo Appiah, Shama District Chief Executive (DCE) announced this in his sessional address at the Assembly's ordinary meeting at Shama.

He said the plan would among others assist the assembly to carry out its physical development to curb the incidence of haphazard development which was one of the main causes of the perennial flooding.

The assembly, the DCE said, is also undertaking a street naming and house numbering exercise while identifying rateable structures to pave way for the collection and collation of reliable data for update.

‘This would in-turn go a long way to make our physical planning more efficient and also improve our revenue generation’, he stated.

Mr Appiah deplored the annual ritual of flooding along the Amankwari flood plains and areas like Badukrom, Shama Junction, Homekope, Komfoeku and Anlo Beach; and blamed the situation on improper structural siting which was being addressed.

To prevent inconvenience among the communities, the DCE gave the assurance that the assembly had committed funds towards relocating the communities of Krobo, the most affected flood prone area to a higher ground for safety.

In addition, he said plans were underway to provide a lot of communities in the district with boreholes to improve their access to portable water.

He, however, entreated the communities to ensure the judicious use of the facilities they would soon be provided with.**