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The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), has announced safe havens in Accra for residents in distress during floods in the national capital.

The Assembly in a publication identified fourteen (14) low lying areas within its precincts which it says are prone to flooding, and matched them with open areas as safe havens for residents.

It said the safe havens could serve as temporary shelter for victims of flood.

Below is a list of flood prone areas and safe havens where the public in the identified communities are expected to seek shelter in case of any eventuality with respect to flooding or any other disaster that may accompany it.

Although the rainy season started at the end of April, it appears to have reached it peak this month as the city has experienced a few downpours that have left many areas flooded.

Last Monday, many residents in Accra were trapped in their homes as rushing rainwater filled their rooms.

Motorists were forced to make a detour or park their vehicles and move to safety as a few cars had been toppled by flood waters.

According to the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), 10 people in the Central, Volta and Greater Accra Regions had lost their lives as a result of the flood.

Many properties were also lost as a result of the situation.

Residents at Taifa junction could not salvage any of their properties as their homes and shops got flooded by the rain

$700 million needed to end flooding

The Works and Housing Minister, Samuel Atta-Akyea, has said it will cost Ghana over $700 million to effectively and permanently deal with the perennial flooding in the Greater Accra Region alone.

He held that Ghana had the technical expertise to deal with the flooding once and for all but was only in need of funds.

He has in the past indicated that the government had put together a road-map to provide a permanent infrastructure solution to the flooding problem.

But the National Organizer of the NDC, Kofi Adams, believes that developing a new city outside the capital, Accra, will help deal with the problem of perennial flooding.

Shop owners count their losses as flood destroys their merchandise
A shop owner lost both her shop (a container) and its contents when the flood dragged a taxi packed nearby to crash the shop and further dragged both away from the shop’s location.