Building and Road Consultant, Ing. Abdulai Mahama has warned that if the right things are not done to prevent the indiscriminate and irresponsible development on buffer areas around the Aburi Mountain and other surrounding municipalities to Accra, in no time Accra would be flooded without the rain falling in the nation’s capital.
“If you look at McCarthy Hill, Amasan, Pokuase, Kwabenya, Brekusu, Teiman, Abokobi, Oyarifa and Ayi Mensah; these are the communities that are unfortunately going to give Accra a hell of problem in terms of flooding over the coming years” he mentioned to Alfred Ocansey on 3FM Sunrise Morning Show.
According to him, Accra by nature is a low land area and in the olden times, when it rained in Aburi, Brekuso, Amasaman, Pokuase and other areas, it took an average of 72 hours or more for the running water to get to Accra but now with just some 30 minutes of rain the flood waters inundate Accra.
“I am emphasizing that it will get to a time, we will not have rains in Accra but Accra will flood when it rains in the nearby towns. We can expand the Odaw drain into two folds in terms of capacity yet we cannot contain the volume of water from upstream.
The Odaw River is filled with about 80% silt and with the exception that we have about 10% polythene saturated”
The passionate engineer Mahama expressed worries over how government and local authorities ignore the advice of technocrats and professionals with impunity.
It can be recalled that in 2020, Ing. Abdulai Mahama and Komla Adom of TV3 did a documentary dubbed ‘Time Ticking Bomb at the Weija Area’ to draw the attention of authorities to the looming danger but unfortunately nothing significant was done to avert the situation. Ing.
Mahama also in March this year warned that there would be an unprecedented amount of silt on the road and if it rains for 72 hours, then both the Accra bound and the Winneba bound of the dual carriage road would be covered with silt for days.
“For the first time in the history of Ghana, when we had rains this year, we had a total blockade of the Accra bound stretch of the Mallam Kasoa route for almost 72 hours. We are just lucky the rain has not intensified” Ing. Mahama said.
He expressed concern over how the Ayi Mensah stretch of the Aburi Mountain has been seriously encroached by real estate developers and private individuals regardless of the caveat from the Inter-Ministerial Committee to prevent people from building on that stretch that is supposed to be a buffer zone.
According to the expert, the valleys are nature’s own buffer set in place to hold and slow the speed of the rain water that is rushing down the mountain to the low land to prevent flooding. The vegetation cover has been depleted by real estate developers whereas the rocks are recklessly blasted to feel the buffer area.
“If someone can buy land worth over $ 250,000 then you should know the caliber of people violating the statutes and putting our lives in danger.
Mr. Mahama also appealed to the leaders at the Assemblies not to undermine the work of Assembly Engineers by threatening them with undue transfers when they insist on the right things.