By Priscilla Oye Ofori/ Eunice Hilda A. Mensah
Accra, May 19, GNA— Female traders in the Accra Central Business District have called for flood resistant market infrastructure to reduce financial losses and flood related injuries and deaths.
They said they needed elevated stalls and improved drainage systems to curtail the loss of income, livelihoods and inability to access their stalls.
Ms Gifty Okyere, a thrift clothing hawker, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the drainage system in the capital was bad, becoming worse when it rained, causing floods.
The Accra Metropolitan area is one of the 29 administrative units of the Graeter Accra Region. It is the most populous region in Ghana with over five million residents according to the 2021 Housing and Population Census.
The low-lying sprawling metropolis suffers damage from flooding every year due to poor and uncoordinated land use and planning. The Physical Planning Department and other regulatory agencies are ill equipped to ensure the effective enforcement of the relevant land use regulations.
It lacks green infrastructure like rain harvesting systems, streets trees and rain gardens which are environmentally sustainable and cost-effective approaches to manage flood.
Ms Okyere said it was disheartening to see many women stranded during floods in the market with some unable to access their stalls.
She said the frustration started from being stranded, to shop owners not allowing them to seek shelter in or infront of their shops during rainfall.
‘‘You can be carrying your wares in the rain because shop owners do not want you in their spaces, it is disheartening and there is nothing you can do about it, some of us even fall into open gutters unknowingly.’’ Ms Okyere added.
Madam Akua Adomah, another thrift clothing seller at Kantamanto, said when floods occurred, their clothes got soaked in muddy water with bright colours, bleeding into some, and others fading.
She said some of the market women lost their entire bales of clothes, which cost a lot of money.
Ms Martha Laryea, a trader, said during floods, women become more frustrated as they pursued vehicles to their homes, adding that some had to leave the market when the rain threatened, making them lose sales.
She also appealed for resources and support to sustain their livelihoods.
Mrs Nyamekye Twumasi, another trader, said authorities must give stiffer punishment to citizens who littered the city and those who had built on water ways to minimise flooding in the metropolis.
GNA
Edited by Samuel Osei-Frempong