A large-scale effort to tear down unauthorised buildings and clear clogged waterways is underway in Accra, driven by the Flood Mitigation Task Force in a bid to stop a recurrence of the severe flooding that recently struck the Greater Accra Region.
Carried out in stages, the operation kicked off today at New England behind Airport Hills and Mayfair Garden Estates before spreading to the Tesa Dam in East Legon and Oyarifa. It is being directed by Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations, Stan Xoese Dogbe, and Minister for Works, Housing and Water Resources Kenneth Adjei, with military engineers providing support.
At the Tesa Dam, next to Boundary Road in East Legon, the task force pulled down illegal retaining walls and other constructions erected along the reservoir’s edge. Officials noted that encroachment had constricted the natural watercourse, while prolonged silt buildup and widespread dumping of plastic waste by squatters had sharply cut the dam’s ability to store stormwater.
Prior to the demolitions, Lieutenant Colonel Frank Osei Amponsah, commanding officer of the 48 Engineer Regiment, spoke to the affected residents, stressing that the work was essential to reopen the water channel. Occupants were allowed time to salvage their property before heavy machinery moved in.
Dredging started straight after the structures came down, targeting the thick layers of silt in the dam, which acts as a vital retention basin for floodwaters affecting the Motorway and nearby neighbourhoods.
Brigadier General Forster Okae-Yeboah, Coordinator of the Flood Mitigation Task Force, told journalists the crisis was caused by human activity.
“The channel has been narrowed because people have built in this area. Water cannot flow freely to the holding area downstream. Since the channel is blocked, water backs up and floods the communities,” he explained.
He stressed that demolition alone would not suffice. “We will clear the debris, dredge the area, and create a buffer zone where no one will be allowed to build again. The assemblies will also be tasked to monitor and act immediately if anyone attempts to encroach.”
Minister Kenneth Gilbert Adjei revealed that the work would continue indefinitely on the President’s explicit instructions.
“The President has directed that this should be an ongoing exercise. After the demolitions, we will continue dredging throughout the year so that whenever it rains, the water will have enough space. We will not allow the kind of flooding we recently experienced to happen again,” he stated.
The action at Tesa Dam comes after similar operations on Thursday at Oyarifa, where a developer had constructed an apartment block straight across a natural waterway, and near Mayfair Gardens, where a concrete-reinforced bridge put up by residents was dismantled.
The task force plans to finish clearing, desilting, and restoring every identified water channel at the current sites before shifting to phase two, which will focus on Weija, Mallam, and the Laboma area.
