National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has warned the Ashanti Region may soon start experiencing serious disasters as the region continues to record heavy rains.
Massive encroachment in waterways have been cited in many wetlands in Kumasi.
Already, flood waters have displaced many in the Greater Accra Region.
Although the Ashanti Region continues to record regular rains, the Region is yet to record any massive destruction caused by the downpour.
But NADMO says the region is not out of the woods.
At Ahodwo, several structures sitting in waterways have been cited.
The situation is not different at Ahinsan Estate.
The situation is even worse at Ejisu area, where the private developers have completely filled the buffer of Oda River, resulting in intermittent flooding.
The Director General of NADMO, Eric Nana Agyemang Prempeh, expressed worry over the development.
“What we are doing today is part of our preventive activities. You know for sometime now the floods are becoming more all over the country.
“Today, I came to the Kumasi metropolis to see some of the things that are bringing in more floods. Yes, we know people are building on unauthorized places and other things. But there are other things that come up all the times,” he said.
“We realized that people are filling buffers, wetlands and water bodies which is very bad. If you look around here, this is a big buffer for the Oda River so that anytime there is heavy rains the buffer can take a lot of waters and cannot go to other people’s houses. But today what we see private developers are filling to put up structures. I’m told they have no permit. NADMO together with other security agencies have stopped them and we are not going to allow them to build here,” he assured.
He said weeds and other things have engulfed the water bodies, preventing free flow of water.
“If you look at most of the places, we need to desilt places. Desilting is one of the problems we are facing now. That is why we are experiencing a lot of floods,” he stated.
He said they are going to implement the President’s directives of pulling down structures on waterways.
“Yes, the President has given directives to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to make sure they pull down some of the buildings on waterways but you and I know in this country the MMDAS are seriously working hard together with Local Government Ministry to make sure they implement president’s Directives,” he said.
According to him, the Assemblies alone cannot do it but need the support of NADMO, Environmental Protection Agency and other security agencies to implement the directives.
Source: 3news.com
