Measures needed to keep Odaw River permanently clean
The 10-km Odaw River which runs through the city of Accra to the sea is meant to properly drain the city and also take in runoff water, especially when it rains, to prevent flooding.
Unfortunately, over the years its purpose has been blatantly abused through heavy silting caused by people making homes at the periphery of the river and deliberately dumping waste into it, thereby resulting in the yearly ritual of flooding in parts of Accra.
Conservative estimates put the amount spent since 2018 at over GH¢2.5 billion.
In the year 2019 alone, the World Bank voted $200 million to reconstruct the Odaw River canal, while by 2022, financial commitments amounting to GH¢450 million had been made in four years.
This is notwithstanding the fact that after the June 3, 2015 twin disaster of floods and fire that took lives and destroyed property worth over $100 million, Engineers and Planners company desilted the Odaw free of charge.
Meanwhile, it is envisaged that $675 million is needed for an enhanced flood protection regime along the Odaw Basin to build resilience against perennial flooding in Accra.
Yet we continue to dole out money to clean the canal every year so that it can hold the maximum volume of water during rainfalls to check flooding.
The Daily Graphic finds it irksome that everyone, especially officials tasked with ensuring the efficient functioning of the canal, knows what should be done to have it cleaned permanently except for regular maintenance, but we are where we are today because we are not taking the required action to let that happen.
During AMA Chief Executive Alfred Oko Vanderpuye’s tenure some years ago, the canal was made sparkling clean after a major desilting exercise, and afterwards during a tour with journalists he remarked that the entire stretch would be turned into a touristic attraction with recreation facilities and boats on the water.
Our city’s bye-laws must bite. Officials paid with the taxpayer’s money must not be seen to be working but must be made to work to bring sanity along the Odaw.
Squatters must be driven away permanently. Those who return must be prosecuted.
While we are happy that Dredge Masters Limited, a subsidiary of Jospong Group, has earned praise from the Parliamentary Select Committee on Works and Housing for its ongoing dredging works in the Odaw River and the Korle Lagoon in Accra, may we remind us all that if we do not check the indiscipline in the area, it will all be a wasted effort.
We will continue to waste money to clear the canal every year to prevent floods if the metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs), and particularly the MCEs of AMA and Korle Klottey do not take immediate action to mitigate Accra's perennial flooding which is largely manmade.
Sadly, we find ourselves in a country where almost everything has become politicised. People illegally encroach on spaces meant to be left fallow to save us all, and when they are ejected others go to their defence, asking the government to resettle them or stop the exercise.
That is why all of us will continue to suffer the brunt of flooding, cholera and other sanitation-related ailments by allowing slums to spring up before our very eyes without taking immediate action
Indeed, as the parliamentary committee said during its tour, “We cannot afford to be reactive; we must be proactive if we want to save lives and reduce economic losses associated with flooding.”
We must enforce the law and address the underlying causes of flooding.
The irony of it all is that some of the encroachers along the Odaw have already been compensated to vacate but they still remain there, probably waiting for another round of compensation.
What sort of people are we at all?
Meanwhile, while at it, we urge Dredge Masters to ensure the silt deposited on the sides of the canal is removed timeously so that it is not washed back into the canal when it rains.
