A member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) communication team, Ms. Gabriella Tetteh, says low-level spatial planning contributes to the country’s perennial flooding in major cities.
According to her, structures in waterways worsen the plight of the citizenry when there is a heavy downpour.
“The problem with development in Greater Accra and Greater Asante has to do with a lot of spatial planning. In terms of houses, where our houses are located as you know, we have a perchance of building in what should be waterways and when the assemblies act on their mandate to break buildings built in waterways, the citizenry would then go in uproar against the assembly for destroying somebody’s property. But those places ought to be properly earmarked as drainage zones or enclaves where people should not be allowed to build,” Gabriella said on Good Morning Ghana, Monday, June 28.
Citing Weija settlement as an example, the NDC communicator said, “We know that every single year since that dam was constructed they always have to spill water, and yet, we have people who have bought lands in that enclave and are developing buildings.”
She noted that the Weija Reservoir “cannot be shut down soon because of human settlement, adding “it provides greater parts of Accra with water but here you have people who have gone to build there and if Weija spills then it becomes an issue.”
“No matter how you try to control water, it will always like fire, it’s an element find own level. And you can’t continuously contain water,” she added.
By: Bernard Ralph Adams | Metrotvonline.com | Ghana