FLOODING IN ACCRA: A Ga Man’s 10-Point perspective to stopping the annual ritual

Flooding in Accra can be solved very simply as follows;

1. Learning the Ga Language to understand the meaning of where you live.

Valley: Dzor-wulu means a “big valley” where run off water from the Aburi Mountains, Legon which is originally “La Gon” meaning La Mountain or Hill and adjoining areas collects at the lower valley area hence prone to Flooding.

Rivers are key, thus living near various Rivers, eg. Odaw Naa is the banks of the Odaw River which empties into the sea through the Korley Lagoon, which if choked will cause flush floods…

Lagoons like the Kpeshie must not be built upon by choking the Lagoon causing flush floods.

Waterways and and wetlands such as exist near the Tetteh Quarshie, Accra Mall, Hotel Kufuor to Shangri-la Hotel area is a water channel or reservoir which must be engineered and used for its original natural purpose with buildings exclusively designed to ecologically fit into an overall national plan to prevent flooding and flush flood…

WE CAN STOP FLOODING IN ACCRA because our forefathers had foresight and it is manifested in the names they gave to places in Accra…

WATER FINDS ITS OWN LEVEL.

2. Dams and Water Reservoirs must be constructed by government in appropriate places associated with obvious flooding.
3. Tree planting in Forests and along River Banks must complement Dredging of Lagoons and River Beds…
4. Greening Ghana must not remain a slogan and conduit for spending|wasting|stealing the limited State funds and pretend to be planting trees…
5. Planting Grass instead of concrete|cement in medians of roads, compounds and open spaces slows run off rain water as it is absorbed into the soil and becomes a useful remedy to flooding…
6. Rain Capture on a national comprehensive housing policy which promotes domestic rain capture, with all Government buildings fitted with rain gutters on the rooftops emptying into storage tanks…
7. Desilting gutters and drains which must be part of a comprehensive covered drainage system to complement (7).
8. Sanitation and a proper waste disposal programme which includes separation of waste, a Cash-For-Trash programme of buying domestic waste which is a resource in recycling, manufacturing and manure production.
9. Ghana can work again, if the “Accra must work Again” and other sloganeering campaigns are turned into real implementable programmes.
10. TOGETHER WE CAN.

God Bless Our Homeland Ghana.

AMEN.

By Prince-Derek Adjei