Dredge masters work at preventing flooding

Dredging works in the Odaw River Basin is 70% complete, but has the capacity to prevent incidents of flooding in the Accra metropolis, the Operations Manager of Dredge Masters Limited (DML), Sena Kofi Adiepena, has stated.

He made the disclosure while addressing journalists who had paid a working visit to some of the dredging sites of the Odaw River within the Accra metropolis to know the progress of work, especially in the wake of the fact that the country was already in the rainy season.

The journalists visited sites at Caprice near Avenor and Odawna, Circle where dredging operations were ongoing at a very high speed to ensure that the work is completed on schedule to avert any further chaos at the least rain.

According to Mr Adiepena, works so far carried out by his outfit on the river had freed the canal to the extent that the rivers  have the capacity to contain high  volumes of water and thus prevent floods.

He however, contended, that his company was faced with loads of challenges during its dredging operations.

These, he said, included large deposits of silt, plastic and metallic materials and encroachment of the catchment areas of drains. He attributed all these to the activities of residents who have encroached on the Odaw River.

That notwithstanding, he gave a firm assurance that his outfit was bent on ensuring that no floods were within the Accra metropolis this year.

“…with the level of dredging works we have done, I can say that there will not be flooding within the Greater Accra Region,” the operations manager of DML said.

Furthermore, Mr Adiepena said: “We are actively engaged in preventing  flooding in the city of Accra whenever and wherever required, especially, during the rainy season,” he added.

DML is a leading civil and marine construction company in West Africa which has since 2016 been working relentlessly to execute various dredging campaigns of the Odaw and Korle Lagoon under the Accra Sewer Storm Waste Drainage Alleviation Project (A3SDAP).

The dredging campaigns have over the years helped to improve sanitary and drainage conditions of the Odaw and Korle-Lagoon