Augustine Ganiyu Adams, Assistant Town Planning Officer of the Town and Country Planning Department Unit of the AMA has blamed estate developers who build on river beds and unauthorized sites for the floods in Accra. “These developers often times put up such building illegally without permission from the Department and forget that the greatest investment they are making will cause a future havoc to lives and properties”, he added. Mr. Adams said that the department had a lay out of all the lands areas in Accra and that before one could develop a land for industrial, commercial or residential project, certain processes had to be carried out to ensure that the land for that purpose would not create any future problems. He said the services of city engineers, hydro-works among others, staffers were to ascertain that such developments would not interfere with the free flow of water during the rains. Mr. Adams said the department issues permit for developmental work to be carried out only when it was satisfied with reports from the authorised bodies. He noted that aside illegal construction on water courses and river banks, the attitude of city dwellers also contributed to flooding of the city. He recounted the situation where heaps of rubbish was dumped in the rivers, open drainage systems which did not allow the free flow of water during the rainy season. Mr. Adams said the Legislative instrument that established the AMA provided the responsibility to the Works department to monitor estate developments and reports on illegal construction. He said the Works department had the power to pull down un-authorized structures and building on water courses. Mr. Adams said aside staff strength; logistics had been the impediment to effective monitoring, while relationship between city authorities and property owners made it difficult for them to do proper enforcement. He called on the assemblymen and women to regularly monitor and report to the Works department activities of recalcitrant developers for verification and action. Source: GNA