As part of measures to address flooding on the Kasoa to Winneba stretch of the N1 highway, government has resorted to putting up some temporary drainage on the road to mitigate the challenge of floodwaters whenever it rains.
Richard Kofi Amekor, Head of Drainage at the Ghana Hydrological Authority says the government could not wait for the completion of the main storm drains considering the dire situation at hand.
He explains the storm drains which is only about 30 per cent complete cannot be relied on as solution to the problem at the moment, making it necessary to get the temporary chambers to take care of the flooding in the interim.
He made the statement Tuesday, May 14, 2024, when the Minister of Roads and Highways, Francis Asenso-Boakye, led engineers and officials from the ministry and the Ghana Hydrological Authority to visit the Kasoa – Winneba section of the N1 to assess the aftermath of the latest flooding incident in the area.
There has been heavy traffic between the SCC and Old Barrier stretch since last Monday following a downpour that led to flooding of that section. Mr Amekor said flooding occurred regularly around the Kasoa Old Barrier because of the large volumes of water from the hills, along with a cache of soil onto the road anytime it rained.
The debris, he said, blocked the flow of water through the drains, and consequently resulted in flooding the area. “There’s an existing pipe which is about 1.2 metres in diameter lying parallel to the road, and we are going to create chambers within this pipe so that when it rains, some of the water can flow through those chambers into the outfall,” Mr Amekor said.
Aside from the temporary chamber, he said there was also ongoing construction of a 1.6-kilometre storm drain from Kasoa Old Barrier to the West Hills Mall area which was expected to be completed within the next 17 months.
The Minister of Roads and Highways admitted that there was a serious storm drainage issue in the area. He, however, said that the issue had already been identified by the Ministry of Works and Housing and the Ghana Hydrological Authority, and that the challenge would soon be dealt with.
He said right after the inspection tour, he would meet with engineers of both his ministry and the Ghana Hydrological Authority to come up with a plan to ensure that all the interventions that were being carried out were coordinated.
“One thing that I’ve realised is that there’s the need for more collaboration between the two ministries in order to address some of these challenges,” Mr Asenso-Boakye said. The Kasoa Old Barrier area is notoriously prone to heavy vehicular traffic, a situation that gets exacerbated when it rains.
Last Monday evening’s rain caused heavy traffic congestion on that stretch, with commuters in vehicles spending up to eight hours in some cases to travel the normally 45-minute journey.
Run-off and soil washed from the hills onto the road took over one side of the dual carriage road, compelling commuters on opposite directions to use just the other side of the road.
Commuters complained that there were no traffic wardens to help matters, as chaos reigned in the survival-of-the-fittest situation.
