President Nana Akufo-Addo says one surest way of addressing perennial flooding in Ghana is a change in the attitude of citizens.
President Akufo-Addo says until Ghanaians change their attitude Accra and major parts of the country will continue to flood.
As an example, he noted how some people dispose of rubbish in drains.
‘‘Up till today, whilst the Odaw River is been dredged, some people think that the best way to dispose of rubbish is to throw it in the gutter, how do we stop flooding with this attitude?’’
Addressing a meeting with the Ghanaians community in Toronto, Canada, Nana Akufo-Addo said: “no amount of investment aimed at finding a solution to Accra flooding will work if our people continue this way’’.
“Lets speak to our families at home, if we stop this habit we will solve this flooding in Accra”
Government has come under intense fire for doing little to address the worsening flooding situation in major urban areas.
A downpour last week resulted in the destruction of properties running into millions of cedis.
The dredging of the Odaw River is ongoing with the aim of mitigating the situation but this has offered a little reprieve in the past.
Successive governments have spent several millions of cedis in an attempt to address the problem but there has been no significant improvement in the situation.
Three people died in the most recent downpour in Accra last weekend after flooding.
The flooding has also been blamed on engineering defects in the drainage system.
The Ghana Meteorological Agency has announced that a fully-funded project by the World Bank is in the offing to address the engineering shortfalls in Accra’s drainage system which causes perennial floods in the city.
