News:
April 2, 2015
The usual attitude of Ghanaians not been proactive until disaster occurs keeps surfacing with the onset of the rains.
Choked gutters have started causing major disturbances in homes in the Ablekuma South Constituency in the Greater Accra Region as residents and city authorities made no attempt to clear the choked gutters.
Not even the national Sanitation Day clean-up exercise is an incentive enough to compel residents around the area to organize themselves to prevent an annual bitter experience they always have to endure.
Speaking to Ghanadistricts.com, residents around Karikari- Marigold area said some houses have started experiencing flooding and they are worried the situation may get worse.
“This area is facing serious challenges, the gutters need to be covered and since it has not, it’s now filled with filth, rocks and sand thereby blocking the water from running through it. Most of the houses around get flooded as a result as it stands the gutter cannot contain the volume of water during heavy rains”, a resident noted.
Another resident added that “though some of the roads were tarred properly, other part were badly done so when it rains it washes the asphalt away, especially the joint street to Chorkor, the place has been severely eroded”.
According to them, even though the young men in the area try to make living out of the choked gutters by collecting the sand for sale, they careless about the waste that is collected along the with sand hence they dump them at the edges of the gutters only to be washed back into the gutters.
“Our worry actually is the period between May/June when the rains will be severe. If care is not taken a lot of people will have their properties destroyed because most homes will be flooded. We know the danger that awaits us but we have no alternative place to relocate to so you only pray that the situation does not get to that level”.
They want city authorities to help desilt the gutters before the major raining season in May/June. “But for a more permanent solution, the gutters should be covered”, one resident advised.
Theresa Workartey/Ghanamps.gov.gh