Ishmael Ashitey cutting the tape for the commissioning of the 25 meter foot bridge at Alogboshie
As part of efforts to prevent the occurrence of tragic disasters in some flood prone areas, the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) with funding from the Norwegian government through the United Nations Development Programme has constructed a 25 meter footbridge for residents of Alogboshie in Accra.
The footbridge which lies on the Odaw River stretches from Achimota-Neoplan and Alogboshie areas and it is to help residents including school children move from one end of the area to the other during heavy downpour.
The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Ishmael Ashitey who commissioned the footbridge in an address said NADMO in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme initiated the Community Resilience through Early Warning project (CREW) with the task to identify 10 flood and drought hot spots in Ghana.
CREW was also to carry out in-depth risk assessment of these areas, assess early warning gap analysis, design a science – based and people centered disaster management early warning systems while undertaking disaster risk interventions in these pilot districts.
The ultimate aim, he explained is to reduce or prevent human and economic loses.
The Director General of the National Disaster Management Organization, Eric Nana Agyeman – Prempeh said the footbridge marks the beginning of a change in disaster management in the country.
He intimated that in the coming week, NADMO will commission nine comparable disaster risk reduction projects throughout the country.
Adding his voice, the country director of the United Nations Development Programme(UNDP) Dominic Sam said latest global figures show that 90% of disasters are as a result of climate change.
“This now cost the world economy US$520 billion per year and push 26 million people into poverty every year.”
He continued that climate change is not only the driver of disaster risk but can lead to unexpected outcomes and sudden changes as the world tries to understand how it combines with other key risk factors such as poor risk governance, rapid and unplanned urbanization , poverty and environmental degration.
Residents of the area were overwhelmed with joy when their wooden footbridge was replaced with a concrete one.
The chief of Alogboshie, Emmanuel Nii Kuma thanked NADMO and the Norwegian government for the support.
The Norwegian government under the CREW project, supported the Ghanaian government with an amount of USD$5.162 million to undertake disaster risk projects in the country; spanning from 2013 to 2017.
Pilot districts where the project will be undertaken included Accra, Kumasi, Techiman, Cape Coast, Shama, Fanteakwah, Akatsi, Bunkpurugu, Bawku and Lawra.
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey