President John Mahama has visited areas that were affected by Thursday’s floods in Accra.

The floods destroyed several properties especially in many parts of Accra leaving residents stranded and frustrated.

The President therefore visited the areas to assess the extent of damage to property and lives.

The President has so far visited only the Mallam and South Odorkor suburbs of Accra.

President Mahama during his visit, sympathized with the flood victims and also emphasized the need for a drainage system to be constructed across the NI highway to address the problem.

In that regard, the President ordered the Ministry of Finance to release funds for the drain to be constructed immediately.

“I have directed that the Conti project be signed as soon as possible because that will give us  some relief. The Conti project will work on some of the streams and the drains and then also give more capacity for garbage collection an also dredge the Korle Lagoon,” the President further revealed.

President Mahama also called for an extensive education of the populace by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and all other state agencies involved for Ghanaians to change their behavior towards waste management practices.

“I think that the Metropolitan Authorities must mount a strong massive educational campaign to change people’s attitudes in terms of garbage disposal,” the President said.

Offering a solution to the problem, the  President also advised residents living in flood prone areas to also take the initiative to develop positive waste management practices.

“If the rain water doesn’t have an open cause to be able to go into the sea it will flood city…even after we have done the CONTI project, if we don’t change our attitudes, we will continue to have this problem,” he stated.

Thursday’s heavy rainfall forced commercial activities to ground to a halt, creating massive traffic on nearly impassable roads across the city.

By: Marian Efe Ansah