Flooding: Majority of storm drains clogged – Engineer

The Head of the Drainage and Hydrological Department of the Ministry of Works and Housing, Ing. Richard Amekpor, has assigned reasons for the perennial flooding in some parts of the cities in the country.

According to him, many of the storm drains built to collect the gushing water when is raining are choked with foreign materials.

He said these foreign materials inhibit the free-flow of flood waters in the storm drains when it rains across the cities.

Mr. Amekpor said this in reaction to the recent flooding in parts of the Central Region after 12 hours of downpour over the weekend in an interview with Kwame Obeng Sarkodie, host of the Ghana Yensom morning show on Monday June 20, 2022.

“Our research has confirmed that many of the storm drains need some form of desilting in these cities to be able to contain the flood waters when it rains,” he stated.

He cited the storm drain at Accra Academy SHS area near Kaneshie Market area along the Kaneshie to Mallam highway in the Accra metropolis as one of the storm drains that are choked with foreign materials.

He gave the assurance that some maintenance works have begun to help save the situation when it rains.

He added that areas like Madina-Redco area, Ogbojo, Abeka-Lapaz among others have had some maintenance done on them.

He was quick to add that flooding as it stand cannot be stopped but can be mitigated with measures such as desilting among others.

He blamed the country’s style of building in recent times and building without permit as the major cause of flooding in the cities.

“So, at the least rain some of the city areas get flooded because there is lack of proper drains in the city,” he noted adding that “people are building to occupy more space than it used to be in the past.”