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Dredge Masters, a subsidiary of Zoomlion Company Limited tasked with dredging the Odaw River, has assured it is working to prevent severe cases of flooding during the rainy season akin to what the country witnessed on June 3 last year.

As the first anniversary of the June 3 disaster that claimed over 150 lives beckons, concerns have been raised over the government’s preparedness to deal with flooding particularly in the national capital, Accra.

This comes in the wake of recent rains this past weekend which led to flooding in some suburbs of Accra despite ongoing dredging works on some key drains which started last year.

The dredging exercise running concurrently at Alajo-Caprice, Odaw canal, and the Korle Lagoon, is geared towards helping to direct the flow of water into the sea thus reducing the instances of flooding and potential loss of life and property.

Dredging on Odaw minimized flooding

Despite the reports of flooding following the recent rainfall, the Communications Manager of Zoomlion, Robert Coleman, has insisted that the impact of the flooding yesterday [Sunday], was minimal because of Dredge Masters’ work on the Odaw River.

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Mr. Coleman said, “Work is being done and we will ensure that per the work that has been done, we will try and improve on it to ensure that when it rains, we will not have the level of flooding that we had last year.”

But Mr. Coleman also intimated that there was an extent to which the dredging work could prevent flooding. According to him, factors ranging from the intensity of the rainfall, length of rainfall and amount of waste running through the drains could influence whether the drains overflow or not.

“As to the magnitude, it is the almighty God that determines it… It depends on the rain pattern and the volume of waste that comes within a particular time. You can have rains within three hours and you can have within 30 minutes a heavy rain. That one, the drains may not be in a position to accommodate whether you have the largest drains or not. It depends on the volume,” he explained.

Regardless of the factors beyond their control, Mr. Coleman assured that his outfit would continue to ensure that runoff water flowed freely through the drains.

“What we are promising is that we will do our best. We would not renege on our effort to ensure that when it rains, we will have a free flow of water so that we will not experience what happened on June 3, 2015.”

The June 3 disaster

A GOIL fuel station near the GCB Bank towers at Circle in Accra was gutted by fire when a fuel tanker exploded amidst severe floods.

Over 96 bodies of persons who were seeking shelter at the fuel station due to the heavy rain and flooding were burnt to death.

The death toll of victims that died in the flood and fire disaster later increased to 150.