Former Greater Accra Regional Minister Henry Quartey says flooding in Accra has become a national security concern and has warned that enforcement measures aimed at addressing the city’s drainage challenges must be sustained to prevent a recurrence of the crisis.
His comments come after he linked the renewed flooding in parts of Accra to what he described as a reversal of earlier enforcement measures that relocated traders from the Agbogbloshie enclave in an earlier Facebook post.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Citi FM on Wednesday, July 1, Mr Quartey said his earlier comments were not politically motivated but were intended to draw attention to the growing risks posed by persistent flooding in the capital.
He stressed that Accra’s flooding problem is driven by a combination of engineering failures, environmental degradation and human activities, insisting that only sustained and coordinated interventions can deliver lasting solutions.
“I wrote that because it didn’t carry any political colour, not at all. I just wanted to communicate to the people that the issues about flooding in Accra must be taken seriously. It’s now a national security concern, whether we like it or not,” he said.
Mr Quartey attributed the improvements recorded during his tenure to enforcement measures that cleared traders from waterways, particularly the relocation of onion traders from Agbogbloshie to Adjen Kotoku and Dominase.
He said the exercise, undertaken by the Regional Security Council with the support of the national security apparatus, helped reduce flooding in several parts of the capital, including Airport Residential, Dzorwulu, Alajo and the Odaw River basin.
According to him, the relaxation of enforcement following the change in government allowed some traders to return to flood-prone areas, reversing some of the gains achieved.
He argued that the development underscores the need for consistent, non-partisan enforcement of planning and environmental regulations, warning that flooding must not be treated as only a seasonal challenge.
Mr Quartey further maintained that the “Let’s Make Accra Work” initiative and the “Operation Clean Your Frontage” campaign formed part of a broader strategy to tackle sanitation and drainage challenges, which he believes remain essential to preventing future flooding disasters.
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