Okyereko, (C/R), June 10, GNA – Mr Stephen Mbomba, the Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways, has charged the contractor working on the expansion of the Kasoa-Winneba Highway to devise strategies to prevent flooding from the Ayensu River.
He said the Kasoa-Winneba Highway was a major road linking other parts of the country hence the need for the contractor to diverting the river and speed up work.
The Deputy Minister was speaking after a tour of the areas flooded by River Ayensu which displaced over 2000 people at Gomoa Adawukwa, Mampong, and neighboring communities in the Central Region.
More than 200 houses were submerged with three of them completely collapsed and acres of land also inundated.
The Deputy Minister appealed to the public to cooperate with the Contractor, stating that the problem was a perennial one, but became intense due to the diversion of the River Ayensu for the construction on the Kasoa-Winneba Highway.
Mr Mbomba expressed satisfaction with work done so far within a short period after the flooding incident.
He said the Ministry received a call from the Engineers that there had been a flooding incident on the Kasoa-Winneba Highway, with portions of the road caved in, rendering it impassable.
“It was a worry and immediately the engineers and the contractor mobilised and came to the rescue and I can see that they were able to fix the broken part of the road that caved in and that traffic has been restored.”
“I am very excited to also see that the water is flowing freely, and I hope that the contractor is going to derive strategies to prevent this from reoccurring,” he added.
He said some communities got flooded but within this short period, life in those communities was gradually returning to normalcy.
“Now that we have seen the problem and the contractor is also up to the task, we are hoping that we can be able to manage the situation during this rainy season for the contractor to construct the road.”
“What we need is that the contractor should be able to divert the river and speed up the work so that we will not experience this type of problem over here,” he stressed.
Madam Mercy Payne, Regional Highways Director, Central Region, said as a result of the ongoing construction, the contractor needed to divert the river to allow them to build the bridge foundation.
The Regional Highways Director said immediately after the overflow, they needed to remove the diversion that had been done to allow the water to flow properly.
She said after the overflow of the River, they needed to block the road, so that the traffic situation would not intensify, enabling them to divert the traffic through Akwati to Ojobi then to Winneba junction.
She said road users from Cape Coast went through Winneba to Ojobi then to Akwati junction to continue their journey.
“So within about an hour or two after the incidence, we got the road cleared of the water, but we couldn’t open the road immediately because some sections of the road had caved in due to the flooding, so we allowed the motorists to use the diversion while we fixed the caved in section,” she added.
She said the road was open to traffic, adding that work was ongoing to restore its full operations.
Madam Payne said the road was not part of the new alignment, stating that it had been realigned so after the project, the existing section of the road would no longer be used.
She said the Contractor was tasked to submit a proposal for channeling the water so that they do not have such an intensive incident occurring again.
“Because the contractor needs to continue to work, it’s very important and the bridge is an important aspect of the project,” she added.
Madam Payne said the contractor was arranging to support the community with some relief items, assuring the affected communities to remain calm as plans were underway.
Mr Robert Hackman, National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) District Director, said displaced citizens had been taken to various schools and churches for shelter, with others moving in with friends and relatives.
He said the affected communities had been documented such that the relief items would be distributed without challenges.
The NADMO District Director appealed to the affected communities not to hurriedly move back to their communities but wait patiently for all the issues to be addressed.
GNA