The city is prepared for the high amounts of rainfall anticipated to occur this week, according to Chief Engineer, Colvern Venture. Venture told reporters on Monday that the Mayor and City Council is currently working with the Ministry of Agriculture to reduce the risk of flooding during the expected showers. He said that pumps in and around the city are all operational, and added that though they are prepared, he is asking that residents desist from dumping garbage in drains and waterways.
“I am calling on the residents out there and persons within the city to desist from disposing of their waste…in the drains and waterways, that is something that we face a great challenge with,” he noted.
Venture said that in preparation for the visit of the President of Ghana, the city undertook some cleaning activities.
He added that they did some cleaning along Lombard Street on Saturday and Sunday and when a subsequent visit was made on Monday, garbage was seen along the roadways and in the drains. He said that they had to go and remove garbage again from those areas. “Sometimes we have the challenge of when we go to deal with some of the matters, the things that we have to take out from the drain or the culverts, they were kind of surprised to see what is in it. We might clear a specific area within a week and we have to go back again,” he said.
The engineer went on to say that when they went to areas like Hincks Street within the vicinity of GTM, they were surprised at what they found in the drainage system. “What we found in the drainage system is that persons actually have their waste pipe from the toilets actually flushing into the drainage system instead of the sewer system and those are challenges that whenever we have floods and so, our workers have to face that,” said Venture. He added that those issues are usually behind the scenes and the general public might not be aware of such, and highlighted that those are just some of the challenges his department faces.
