Floods in Accra to Reduce During Raining Season

By Yaw Kyei

The perennial flooding of the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange area is expected to be brought under control this rainy season due to the intense dredging of the Odaw Lagoon.

The engineers dredging the lagoon are confident that in the next 18 days, the flood will reduce drastically at the area.

Captain Khan, one of the engineers on the site, told President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo that the dredging would create enough passage and storage space in the Odaw Lagoon to control flood situations when it rained.

The President visited the site and the Kaneshie First Light drainage construction in Accra yesterday to inspect the progress of work.

Captain Khan said the lagoon had a capacity to contain six to eight hours of rain and indicated that in the next 18 days, the lagoon would be able to create passage and store water to prevent flood.

President Akufo-Addo promised to visit the site after 18 days to assess the state of the lagoon.

The dredging of the Odaw Lagoon forms part of the Accra Sanitary Sewer and Storm Water Drainage Alleviation Project being executed by Dredge Masters.

The company is dredging the Korle Lagoon which flows from Caprice through Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, the Graphic Road Bridge, the Abbossey Okai Bridge, and South Kaneshie Confluence to the Guggisberg Bridge.

The President was shown the artistic impression of the Lower Korle Lagoon Development Project before proceeding to inspect the Kaneshie First Light Project.

The 600-metre drainage construction at Kaneshie, which is being funded by the World Bank at a cost of GH¢7 million, is expected to link the roadside drain into the underground drain to address flooding in the area.

The project began in March this year by Vuluus Construction Company. It is expected to expand the drainage system to ease the flow of water from the Obetsebi Lamptey roundabout, Kaneshie Market and surrounding areas.

Due to the construction of the project, portions of the Kaneshie Winneba road had been partially closed to motorists to allow work for the construction of the underground drainage.

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