Human attitude responsible for 70% of floods – Deputy NADMO Director
A Deputy Director General of the National Disaster Management Organisation [NADMO] has said that there cannot be a lasting solution to floods in Ghana until there is attitudinal change.
Mr. Abu Ramadan speaking in an interview on Tuesday said human element contributes 60% to 70% of floods in the country.
“There may not be a lasting solution,” said Ramadan. “The reason why I say that is; we can do everything we want to do, spend billions of dollars in restructuring our drains and everything but if the attitude of the Ghanaian does not change it still comes to zero.
“In Ghana we do not have natural disasters, in terms of rains and all that, they are all manmade and human-made by virtue of our own attitude and the ways we do our things. This contributes to the flooding that you see,” Mr. Ramadam told Joy FM’s host.
Citing an example with the reconstruction of the Wagya drain that government awarded last year for expansion, he said “if we end up doing the same things by putting in filth, putting plastic into the drains, we will end up chocking the drain and prevent water flow.”
Ramadan’s comments come at a time the Head of Forecast at the Meteorological Agency, Joseph Portuphy, has said Ghanaians should brace themselves for more rainfall in the middle belt and coastal areas.
Floods in the capital and other parts of the country have claimed over 10 lives this month.
A total of seven bodies were retrieved from flood waters at different parts of the capital following heavy rains on Sunday, April 14, 2019
The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) said four of the seven bodies were recovered from flood waters at Adjei-Kojo, a suburb of Accra.
The bodies of a husband and wife – both military officers – were among the seven retrieved from flood waters by NADMO after the Sunday rains.
S/Sgt Arthur Jabez, 45, and his wife WO Sarah Kuadzi, 40, were travelling in a military pick-up truck from a funeral in Tema when their vehicle got caught in the flood waters at a suburb along the motorway known as Adjei-Kojo.
These deaths bring the total number of lives lost to 12 as a result of floods in Accra in just a week.
Similar downpour on April 7 also claimed five lives.
NADMO is still searching for the bodies of a six-year-old boy and an adult male who were swept away by flood waters at Sakaman and Ablekuma, respectively.
The bodies of man who was pushed into the Odaw River around the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange and that of the 11-month old baby is also being searched for.
Meanwhile, the government said it has allocated ¢197 million for the desilting choked drains and other drainage works in the country.
Addressing the press in a joint interaction between her Ministry and the Greater Accra Metropolitan Water and Sanitation Projects, Cecelia Dapaah said the contract for the works has already been awarded by the Ministry of Works and Housing.
Source: Myjoyonline