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Dredging Odaw is ‘band-aid’; won’t stop the floods
According to Professor Robert Andoh, dredging cannot be counted on as a preventative measure to the floods because of the nature of Accra’s drains.
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According to Professor Robert Andoh, dredging could not be counted on as a preventative measure to the floods because of the nature of Accra’s drains.
“[In Accra] we have a lot of exposed surfaces. The more exposed surfaces you have, the more erosion you will get which will wash sediments into the drains…Part of the issue is that we need to address and prevent the erosion of sediments into the drains in the first place.
"The dredging is like band-aid...Are we going to be dredging every year?”; he quizzed.
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As such, Professor Andoh is proposing the covering up of open drains such as the Odaw to prevent silt from getting into the drain in the first place. He also recommended that the solution to the floods should start from the upstream and has called for the conscious control of water flowing into rivers in the city but take their sources from far away.
“We are causing erosion of the surfaces so go to the source and address the problems rather than putting on band-aid and you still have the festering sore.”
The Accra Metropolitan Assembly’s was banking on dredging works in the Odaw drain and Korle Lagoon to save the city this year.
At a memorial service to commemorate the first anniversary of the June 3 disaster, the mayor of Accra, Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, announced that 45 percent of work had been done by way of dredging major drains in the city.
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Days after that announcement, the major parts of the city including Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Adabraka, parts of Teshie, Airport Residential, Dzorwulu, Achimota, Rasta Road, Tse Addo flooded leading to loss of property.
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