The Flood Mitigation Task Force has began a phased dredging, desilting and demolition exercise across various locations in Accra. Led by the Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations, Stan Xoese Dogbe, the Minister for Works, Housing and Water Resources, Kenneth Adjei, in the company of the Coordinator of the Works, Brigadier General Forster Okae-Yeboah, the team has began the removal of properties along water ways and channels, poorly engineered bridges by developers intended to divert the water and the dredging of silted dams and water ways. Accompanied by the Deputy Chief of Staff at the Army Headquarters, Major General Annan Glover and the Commander of the Engineer Brigade, Brigadier General Richard Kinny, the exercise began at New England, located behind the Airport Hills and Mayfair Garden Estates, continuing to the Tesa Dam in East Legon and Oyarifa.
At the Tesa Dam, adjacent to Boundary Road in East Legon, the Flood Mitigation Task Force demolished structures built along the banks of the dam as encroachment has narrowed the natural waterway. Some developers had constructed illegal retaining walls and other unauthorised structures, while indiscriminate dumping of plastic waste and other activities by squatters living around the dam caused heavy siltation of the reservoir and its drainage channels, increasing the area’s vulnerability to flooding. Before the demolition exercise began,The commanding officer of the 48 Engineer Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces, Lieutenant Colonel Frank Osei Amponsah addressed residents affected by the exercise.
He explained that the operation is intended to restore the waterway and mitigate flooding, urging residents to cooperate with the task force. Occupants were given the opportunity to remove their belongings before the demolition commenced. Following the demolition of the unauthorised structures, the task force immediately began dredging the Tesa Dam, which serves as a retention basin for floodwaters.
The exercise involves removing heavy silt deposits to restore the dam’s storage capacity and improve the free flow of water, with the aim of reducing flood risk along the Motorway, East Legon and surrounding communities. The Tesa Dam is a critical flood retention basin designed to temporarily store stormwater during heavy rains before releasing it gradually into the drainage network. Authorities say years of siltation, encroa…
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