The Adentan Municipal Assembly in its quest to address the perennial flooding in the Municipality will demolish some 84 houses built on local waterways.

Mr Humphrey Ankamah, Municipal Coordinator, National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), said the demolishing exercise would take effect from January and February 2020, when the rains were over.

Speaking at a panel discussion on “Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction for Floods: Policy Response Strategies from Ghana,” he said, “currently we are doing sensitization programme for the people as a way to address the flooding within the municipality”.

It was organized by the Climate & Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) as part of the just-ended Climate Change &Population Conference on Africa in Accra to get responses from five different District Assemblies in the Greater Accra Municipal Areas (GAMA) to deal with the flooding issues in their respective areas.

They are: Adentan Municipal, Ga Central, Ga East, Kpone Katamanso and La Nkwantanang Madina.

Mr Ankamah said this year, they had improved on the flooding situation and attributed it to the early desilting of major drainages in the Municipality.

During the discussion, it came out clear that all the five District Assemblies are focusing on public education and sensitization, construction of storm drains, demolishing exercise, and dredging of drainages as the short term solutions to the floods in their areas.

Dr Ted Annang, Lecturer and Senior Researcher at the Institute of Environment and Sanitation Studies, University of Ghana, said the rate at which the country was developing, “We need to have a second look at our development planning according to the ecosystem products such as wetlands, flat plains and trees.

“There is the need to add nature’s own provision to our development strategies,” he added.

Dr Ben D. Ofori, Senior Researcher, IESS, also emphasized the need to protect natural ponds and use more of low lands to create such ponds, especially in the capital to protect the lagoons.

“Markets and community centres generate lots of wastes and therefore we need to establish such facilities on high lands to avoid flooding and contamination of our rivers,” he said.

Nii Noi Adumuah, Adentan Municipal Chief Executive, said the current flooding events in the capital was due to poor drainage caused by lack of inadequate infrastructure, building on waterways, and indiscriminate dumping of waste among others.

He said the Adentan Municipal Assembly was planning to tie waste collection fee to property rate to encourage people to register with waste collection agencies to address the sanitation problem in the area.

He announced that the Assembly had passed a law, which demands that property owners planted six trees on their property before they could obtain a building permit.

That, he said, would go a long way to protect the vegetation against flooding and other natural disasters.

Madam Charlotte Scott, CDKN Country Engagement Manager, Africa, said the network was a global programme that worked in Africa, Asia and Latin America to enhance the quality of life for the poorest and most vulnerable to climate change.

She said in Ghana, CDKN worked with the University of Ghana to engage key decision-makers in the public, private and non-governmental sectors, adapting the latest and most relevant information on climate change to national needs.

It also offers opportunities to exchange experiences with other countries, and to contribute to the regional and global climate discourse, she added.