The ongoing demolition exercise at Bush Road in the La Dade-Kotopon Municipality is part of efforts by the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) to protect the Kpeshie lagoon and prevent future flooding, NADMO Director General Major (Rtd) Dr. Joseph Bikanyi Kayo has said.
Speaking to JoyNews on Monday, Dr. Kayo explained that encroachment on water bodies is a major contributor to flooding in Accra during the rainy season.
“Every water body plays a role to enhance the ecosystem… Water is supposed to have its home. So, if you take the home of water and the rains come, where will it go? There’s supposed to be a collection point where water settles to allow human activities to continue smoothly. Now you’ve taken that water body. So, when the rains come, it comes into our homes. We say flooding. Flooding is because we have caused it,” he said.
The demolitions, carried out in collaboration with the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council, follow an assessment of flood-prone areas in Accra. According to NADMO, residents and businesses were given ample notice to move their belongings before the exercise began.
Dr. Kayo emphasised that the move is not intended to punish residents, but to enforce discipline and protect the broader public. “Before we come to sites like this, we pre-inform the people and give them a time frame within which they should move their valuables… It’s just because of the indiscipline that brought them in the first place,” he added.
NADMO has indicated that the Bush Road exercise is just the beginning. Other water bodies in the city that have been encroached upon will also be cleared to restore their natural state, helping to prevent the severe floods that have in the past displaced residents and destroyed property in Accra.
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Source: www.myjoyonline.com