The Works and Housing Minister, Samuel Atta Akyea has described as untrue, a trending video of floating waste in a major drain around Asylum down.

According to the Minister, the video is an attempt by some persons to create disaffection for the government.

“There was a whole propaganda trending that a lot of debris was floating after 15 minutes of a downpour. But that arrangement couldn’t be like that.

“It was all false and those who are behind it to smear the government must know it is not proper,” the Minister said during an inspection tour to flood-prone areas in Accra, Wednesday.

Residents of Asylum Down in Accra were left in shock last Friday when tonnes of garbage floated in an open drain behind the Paloma Hotel after it rained.

The waste, characterised by used plastic bottles, packs and plastic bags captured in an amateur video was floating in the storm drain at Nima that crosses Ring Road into Asylum Down.

This caused Ghanaians on social media to regenerate the debate about safety and flooding ahead of the raining season amidst warning from the Ghana Meteorological Agency that persons living in and around areas such as Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Weija and the Graphic Road, should prepare to experience flash floods as the rains begin.

But debunking the claim that drains at Asylum down are fully drenched in filth and thus incapable of safeguarding citizens against floods, Mr Atta Akyea said some $200 million has been invested into fixing all technical challenges of the infrastructure.

“These drains are not silted to the extent that you will have debris floating and we should also bear in mind that this is a very capital intensive arrangement so that if work takes off we won’t have any problem.

“The fact of the matter is that we have $200 million under the World Bank Programme that is going to take care of this major drain here and when that is done and covered we will not have this issue,” he said.