BODY TO EVALUATE ENGINEERING DESIGNS OF DRAINS IN ACCRA (PAGE 24)

The Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing is setting up a body of engineers to evaluate the engineering designs of drainage systems in Accra to find lasting solutions to the perennial flooding of the city and its environs.
The absence of a central body to co-ordinate the construction of drainage systems in Accra has led to over- and under-designing of drainage facilities, which cause floods annually in the national capital.
The Hydraulic Engineer of the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Mr Wise Ametefe, who announced this at a technical meeting of the Institute of Civil Engineers in Accra at the weekend, said the setting up of the body was part of measures being taken to mitigate the effects of flooding in the city.
He said the ministry had come to realise that defects in engineering designs and construction were responsible for the localised flooding Accra continued to experience whether there were heavy rains or not.
He said the central body, which would comprise engineers from the public and private sectors, would assist in the assessment of hydrological data for the construction of all drainage systems.
He said most of the local contractors lacked the capacity to assess hydrological data and were at the mercy of their engineers who might not possess the capabilities and capacity to construct the drainage system.
Mr Ametefe said as part of the measures to prevent flooding, the ministry would help build the capacity of local contractors so that they could offer alternative advice when they doubted the advice of their engineers, who could not always be right.
He said presently because local contractors had to rely solely on their engineers for advice on construction, they were unable to detect any engineering defects when they occurred.
Mr Ametefe said this had led to the ministry and the government spending a lot of money to address the engineering defects and pay for relief supplies to victims because of the shoddy works of some contractors.
He said the Odaw drainage system had become silted because of its engineering designs, which made it possible for a lot of sediments to settle in the drainage system.
Mr Ametefe said another area that had been considered for action was the harvest of rainwater for treatment and storage for use during the dry season to supplement the potable water delivered to households.
He said landlords would be encouraged through education to build more rain harvesting devices to store water as one of the means to prevent flooding.
He explained that the population of Accra kept increasing as more houses sprang up, leading to localised flooding. He attributed this to the fact that most of the areas were covered with roofing sheets or concrete that prevented water from sipping into the ground, resulting in the rainwater flowing to low-lying areas to cause floods.
Mr Ametefe said that was the more reason why the ministry would be spearheading the campaign to trap all this rainwater through rainwater harvesting systems in Accra.
The Country Representative of the Institute Civil Engineers (UK), Mr Baffuor Osei, said Ghana was endowed with a lot of natural resources, which included rivers and streams.
He said what was needed was the ability to harness the natural resources and manage them in a manner that they would not cause havoc to lives and property.
Mr Osei said this could be done by collecting information on the rivers, such as the time they overflow their banks, how to maintain the channels and remove blockades obstructing their free flow and sharing this information with the communities living along the rivers and streams.
He said when all these measures were put in place, the effects of floods would not be as devastating as it is at present and lives and property could be saved.