The Greater Accra Resilience and Integrated Development (GARID) project has dismissed allegations of misappropriation of funds and neglect of its flood preparedness and resilience efforts.
According to Philip Denyo, Public Relations Manager for GARID, works at various dredging and drainage expansion sites are progressing as planned, contrary to claims made by analysts and development specialists.
“I explained that the 65 million in the first place was taken from the GARID Project. We requested documentation from the World Bank, giving them the go-ahead, and no objection to allow them to use the 65 million from the project, which we all know. Now if that one was taken, then the World Bank is supposed to replace it or the government is supposed to replace it.”
“We need documentation to show that indeed the World Bank has approved it, that they should use the 65 million, and that we don’t need to go back to the World Bank and ask for additional facility again because it’s the same World Bank that is requesting us to loan from this money. We are calling for international auditing, forensic auditing.”
A visit to the Alogboshie Drainage Expansion site by Citi News revealed workers actively engaged in dredging and installing concrete slabs in drains.
The construction works here started in January when the rains had not begun. The slow pace of the work is a major concern to me. One of the problems is that when it rains, then the place gets flooded.”
While some residents expressed concerns about the slow pace of work, Ralph Cudjoe, an on-site contractor, expressed confidence that the project will significantly improve flood risks in communities within the Odaw River Basin upon completion.
“With the state of the Alogbloshi drainage expansion, we started work this year in January and we have D1 to D7. We’ve started work on D1, D2, and D3. D1 is where we are currently standing; we have D2 also within the residence and D3 also under construction. Out of the seven drains that we have, we are working on three at the moment.”
“The project does not consist of only the storm drains; we also have some road networks with pedestrian walkways by it that we are also working on. We have about 21 different roads which we have tackled five of them.”
GARID, funded by the World Bank since its inception in response to the June 3 flooding and fire disaster in Ghana, has been instrumental in enhancing the country’s flood risk and solid waste management.
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