Dredge Masters has completed the first phase of a project to de-silt about 7.5km of drain channels that feed the Odaw River and Korle Lagoon.

The project, which started in December last year, was aimed at ensuring that flood disasters that characterise the raining season in 2015 will not recur in 2016.

The scope of works involved excavation, de-silting and refuse removal from the Odaw channel. Dredge Masters’ was dredged and cleared of the banks of the Odaw River and Korle Lagoon.

During a tour of the project site – which stretch from Alajo to Sodom and Gomorrah in Accra – to brief journalists on the extent of works, Director of Operations of Dredge Masters, Sena Adiepena lamented fast pace at which the drains get silted.

“The challenge we are facing concerns settlement along the drains. The settlers put a lot of foreign materials into the drains. Even in broad daylight you see people throwing refuse into the drains,” he said.

Sena Adiepena

He called for government intervention to relocate residents along the drains and urged for public education to end the constant dumping waste into the Odaw River and Korle Lagoon.

A Consultant to the project, Ing Wise Ametefe said efforts to de-silt the Korle Lagoon and restore it to its former glory can only be achieved with attitudinal change.

“Dumping of refuse into open drains is a major challenge because of the difficulty in scooping silt from the lagoon which is always mixed with plastic and other materials,” he said.

Dredge Masters, a Ghanaian-owned leading provider of dredging services, was contracted to dredge the Odaw drain which runs through a greater part of the city.

It is the first company to be contracted by the government to clear the drain after the philanthropic gesture by Mr Ibrahim Mahama’s Engineers and Planners following the June 3, 2015 floods.

Dredge Masters, a subsidiary of the Zoomlion Group of Companies, has been awarded the contract since November 2015.