The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has cautioned the public against indiscriminate waste disposal ahead of the rainy season to avoid floods.

Mr Ahmed Mustapha, the Upper West Regional Director of NADMO, cited choked gutters and poor drainage systems in the Wa Municipality as some of the causes of floods.

“We should all be ambassadors so far as flood management is concerned,” Mr Mustapha said in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Wa.

He advised the people to change their attitudes towards waste management, as waste materials choke the gutters and stifle free flow of water, which causes flooding during heavy rains.

“As we speak, some work has been done on the drainage system and work is still ongoing, that will reduce the occurrences of flood in the Municipality,” Mr Mustapha said.

He, however, noted that the Organisation had put in place measures to avert possible flood disaster in the region.

Those measures, he said, included community sensitisation, particularly those along river banks, flood management practices, as well as providing the communities with information from the Meteorological Agency to enable them to guard against floods.

Mr Mustapha said he had directed all NADMO secretariats in the region to embark on community sanitisation, stay alert, be well informed and to convey information on possible disaster to the communities.

He said though the organisation was well equipped to provide relief items to victims of disaster, its focus was on the prevention of the disaster.

“As we speak now whatever we can do to eliminate the occurrence of flood is what we will do,” he said.

“Even though we have some items on standby, however, if you don’t let the people understand and the unexpected happens, it becomes very difficult to administer the relief packages to them.”