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GOVERNMENT WILL SOLVE FLOOD SITUATION – MINISTER
The Minister of Works and Housing, Honorable Samuel Atta Akyea, has assured Ghanaians of Government’s commitment to solve the perennial flooding in the country.
He said government is considering raising bonds or putting in place a serious financial plan to repair broken bridges among other detective structural works to curb the recurrent flooding in the country.
According to him, the flooding situation in Kumasi, Accra and other places is a big challenge that needs good financial plan and adequate funds to tackle the situation once and for all just as bonds are raised for equally important projects.
The Honorable Minister was addressing the media in Kumasi after a tour of some flood prone areas such as Sepe, Boukrom, Asabi, Esreso and Moshie Zongo among others in Kumasi and its environs in the Ashanti Region.
He was accompanied by the Ashanti Regional Minister, Deputy Ministers of Works and Housing, the Mayor of Kumasi, Members of Parliament in the area, the Chief Director of the Ministry, Director of Hydrological Services Department, the National Disaster and Management Organisation (NADMO) and some other officials.
Honorable Atta Akyea, explained that the Ministries of Works and Housing and Roads and High Ways, would need huge capital to as a matter of urgency fix damaged bridges at strategic locations in and around the Ashanti Regional capital.
He added that areas where the flood has destroyed bridges and made them unmotorable, have heavy traffic and therefore cannot wait any longer to be fixed.
The Minister cautioned that politics should not be dragged into measures being put in place to deal with the issues pertaining to natural disasters like floods.
He noted that the challenge had been a threat to national safety since independence, hence the need for the country to address it ‘technically’ instead of playing politics with it. ‘This is a big challenge to Kumasi, since a lot of structures too are on waterways. It needs technical solutions because it is becoming a norm and we don’t want it that way,’ he added.
The Ashanti Regional Minister, Honorable Simon Osei-Mensah, on his part, disclosed that the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and NADMO had already penned down structures to be demolished soon.
The Regional Minister said technical persons are also on the ground looking out for structures closer to water bodies and obstructing their flow. He cautioned residents in Kumasi and the region at large to be watchful in this rainy season because ‘we can’t cheat nature and we don’t want a repetition of this.’