Ghana has been ranked among the top African countries exposed to risks from multiple weather-related hazards, according to Minister for Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye.
He disclosed that US$3.2 billion (4.45% of GDP) worth of economic assets are at risk of flooding in the Greater Accra Region alone and indicated the figure is expected to quadruple by 2050 if urgent actions are not instituted.
Perennial flooding across the country, he said, also poses significant threat to government’s accelerated socio-economic development agenda and impacts adversely on the mental health of victims and undermines their ability to conotribute meaningfully to economic growth.
In a statement on Thursday1st July 2021 to highlight measures the government is pursuing to address the increasing risk of flooding across the country, Mr. Asenso Boakye noted that lives have been lost, properties destroyed, people displaced, transport links disconnected, economic activities disrupted and livelihoods uprooted because of flooding.
According to him, the causes of flooding in the country are multi-faceted that include inefficient drains, undersized culverts and uncrontrolled development in flood plains, wetlands and waterways.
“Additionally, indiscriminate dumping of solid waste into our drains by households contribute significantly to urban flooding.”
“Across the country, we see new developments and buildings springing up in waterways and flood plains (buffer zones) blocking the flow of storm water and worsening the risk of flooding.”
“The devastating flood event in the Odaw Drainage Catchment on 3rd June 2015 led to an unfortunate loss of about 150 lives and about 50,000 people were directly affected to varying degrees,” he stated.
He stated that several places across the country since the beginning of this year have experienced severe and devastating flooding including a number of areas in Kumasi where several shops and homes were flooded and goods worth millions of cedis were destroyed.
Similar reports, he said, have also been received from Koforidua and Takoradi and many other parts of the country and stressed that the increasing risk of flooding associated with climate change is clear and the state need to take bold steps to tackle this challenge holistically.
Mr. Asenso-Boakye disclosed that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, since taking office in 2017, has incested about GH¢450 million in the national flood control and priority drainage programme compared to GH₵88 million invested by the previous Mahama government between 2011 and 2016.
“Clearly, this level of commitment to tackling the problem which has resulted in a reduction of flooding incidents in the past few years is unprecedented and commendable,” he said.
The government, he said, is currently collaborating with the World Bank to invest more than US$200 million to address solid waste and flood risk challenges in the Odaw Drainage Basin and disclosed that the project will also see the development and implementation of a a Flood Early Warning System to enhance community safety and resilience.
The Akufo-Addo government, he said, is also making every effort to ensure flood risk is minimized but stressed the government cannot do it alone because flood management is a shared responsibility.
“It is incumbent on every citizen to complement the effort of government, take their own safety seriously and be more mindful of the manner in which solid waste is disposed of.”
He appealed to individual homebuilders to avoid paving all of their compounds and make room for storm water infiltration by introducing vegetation called on MMDAs to strictly enforce planning laws and Building Codes to prevent development in waterways, floodplains and wetlands.
Source: MyPublisher24.com
