Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah
Former Local Government Minister and Member of Parliament (MP) for Techiman South Constituency, Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah, has described the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government’s attitude towards addressing the perennial flooding in Accra as lazy.
The New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) record of handling the perennial flooding is unsurpassed, he said, adding that “it is the only government with a policy on addressing the annual weather challenge facing the nation’s capital.”
Speaking yesterday during an interview, the former Local Government Minister in the previous NPP administration recalled how then President Akufo-Addo summoned experts on the subject to discuss a way out of the annual problem.
This, he said, led to the arrival at initiating the World Bank-funded Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) project, which identified areas with flooding problems.
The Odaw River, he said, is fed by a number of tributaries whose negligence leads to part of the flooding of Accra as witnessed annually. It was decided, he recalled, to embark on periodic dredging of the Odaw River so it would not impede in its ability to contain the floodwaters from its multiple tributaries. A compromised Odaw River will lead to the return of floodwaters upstream as occasioned by the floods, he added.
The GARID project, he said, entailed the construction of storm drains among others to ensure the free flow of water from the Odaw River basin in Accra.
“The $350 million GARID programme is the only existing flood management policy in the country,” he stated.
The World Bank funds which were released in tranches saw works at Kaneshie, Paloma and BoG quarters among others, the impact of which led to reduced flooding, he said, adding that “not a dime of the World Bank funds was lost and this is verifiable.”
He bemoaned government’s claim that the project could not proceed because at some locations squatters had pitched camp and would not leave.
“For a government to say this when a major project of this magnitude is outstanding is despicable. Why can’t the full force of the state be brought to bear on those obstructing a project of far-reaching consequence?” he asked.
“During our rounds with former Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia on Tuesday, we visited families of dead people. Dr. Bawumia begged for the removal of dead bodies lying about in some places. This is the time for the solutions President Mahama promised Ghanaians. People are dying, this is not the time for lessons on flooding,” he pointed out.
Storm drains and other sophisticated engineering interventions were incorporated into GARID, which remains the most outstanding and only engineering intervention ever undertaken by a government in this country, credit for which goes to the NPP administration under the leadership of former President Akufo-Addo.
“We shall no longer watch on as NDC throws dust into the eyes of Ghanaians. In terms of development and life-changing projects, NDC comes nowhere near the NPP. To see the two as same is untrue,” he stated.
The fact of the unused $200 million funding is acknowledged by the relevant committee of Parliament, he said. A World Bank team, when prompted about the funds and projects, said it had no queries about the money and that all they want is the actualisation of the project.
Further proof of NPP’s superior records in terms of social interventions and development, he referred to the Agenda 111 projects which would have taken the pressure from the referral hospitals and ushered in a health revolution in the country. The Ghana Productive Safety Net under which the School Feeding Project functions, he pressed the alarm button, “will soon collapse.”