The Urban Roads and the Physical Planning Departments of Okaikwei North Municipal Assembly (ONMA) have ended a day’s trip to inspect ongoing dredging works under the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID).
This also includes desilting of gutters and dredging of streams within the Municipality.
The exercise is part of plans to reduce flooding in the Municipality as the country enters the raining season.
According to Ing. Frederick Asare, the Head of Department for Urban Roads in the Okaikwei North Municipality, there is the need to do site verification and the impact of the dredging on the communities.
“Under GARID, this project is part of operations and maintenance. Ing. Asare said.
The Okaikwei North Municipality Head of Department for Urban Roads explained that “We are also doing this together with the works department, in some instances where the team finds out that some structures need to be pulled down, report will be given to the Assembly for action to be taken.”
However, some residents in the beneficiary communities have hailed the project.
Bernard Donyo, a resident of Christian village, a suburb in the Municipality explained that, the dredging is very good for the community, adding “but one problem is that rubbish, broken sticks and other things choke the gutters making it difficult for the water to flow”.
Sometimes he continued: “I have to do the cleaning of the thrash myself. We will plead with the Assembly to also desilt the gutters frequently….”
Korkor Agbokome, a trader at Achimota ‘Aunte Korkor’ said: “this dredging is very nice, when it rains, we will not see any flooding. We want the Assembly to come and construct concrete gutters for us so that it will be more modern”.
Sher argued that the rubbish moves with the water up stream to where I am now, “so we will like the Assembly to assist us collecting the rubbish.”
Korkor further indicated “sometimes we have to pay people to collect the rubbish in the gutters for us.
The inspection team includes, Heads of Department and some staff of Okaikwei North Municipal Assembly.
Source: onma.gov.gh.
