Rosemond Abrah
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Weija/Gbawe in the Greater Accra Region, Rosemond Comfort Abrah, has urged government to construct drains and bigger culverts as a matter of urgency at the Mallam Junction and Gicel areas in her constituency.
The area experiences severe flooding any time there is heavy rain in the capital, affecting lives and properties.
Madam Abrah said whenever there is a heavy downpour in Accra, the Mallam Junction road got so flooded that vehicles from Weija, Kasoa, Cape Coast and beyond could not use the road.
According to her, the nation experienced a heavy downpour on Monday, June 3, 2013, and the consequence was that those two areas became got so flooded that, for the greater part of the day, the road became unmotorable, cutting her constituency completely off from the rest of the country.
“On Monday, all the vehicles coming from my constituency, Kasoa, Cape Coast and beyond were caught up behind the flood waters while those coming in the opposite direction also suffered the same fate. The traffic was so heavy that some travellers and commuters had to return to their homes,” she said.
Madam Abrah made the appeal through DAILY GUIDE in Parliament yesterday stressing that the Ghana Highways Authority and for that matter the government should quickly put in place measures to control the floods in those important areas.
“Most houses in those areas also get flooded with people’s property getting destroyed and something has to be done about it now because these people in my constituency cannot continue to suffer due to architectural defects on the new Mallam road.”
She noted that her investigations had revealed that culverts built under the road to collect rain water were so narrow that there was always a splash over when it rained.
The Mallam/Gbawe MP said apart from the Mallam Junction and Gicel areas in her constituency, residents of Oblogo and SCC faced similar flooding problems and that it was high time government found a way of assuaging their problems during this rainy season.
She said it was rather unfortunate that the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) was complaining about shortage of relief items especially during this rainy season.
“In respect of the flooding at the Mallam Junction and the Gicel areas, I have personally written to the Ghana Highways Authority and the Hydrological Department but they have not responded to my request to do something about that portion of the road, and so the government should step in to save lives and properties during this raining season,” the MP noted.
She said she had personally led a team together with some assembly members in the areas to desilt some drains in the constituency as part of her responsibilities. She added that although the Ga Municipal Assembly was also doing its part, their efforts were not enough.
“The residents of Mallam/Gbawe want to call on government to come to our aid because we are suffering and with a forecast of more heavy rains in the year our suffering will be compounded.”
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