The Ghana Highways Authority (GHA) says the completion of the Mallam drainage works will end the perennial loss of lives and properties in the area due to floods.

“Definitely their lives will be saved…we know their history, they have lost lives over there [and] they have lost properties,” Public Relations Officer of the GHA, Diana Seade, assured on Joy FM's Super Morning Show, Monday.

Her comments follow the closure of a section of the Mallam-Kasoa Highway effective today [Monday], to enable engineers to work on the 500-meter double cell culvert to reduce the perennial flooding on that stretch.

The GHS6 million project sponsored by the World Bank and implemented by the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources (MSWR), has been necessitated by the flooding on the Mallam Junction section of the N1 Highway which renders the road impassable when it rains.

A section of the Mallam road flooded

Accra’s major environmental risk is flooding, due mainly to the low-lying coastal landscapes, lagoons and poor infrastructure.

Madam Seade partly attributed the delay in the execution of the project to a prolonged stakeholder engagement because they needed to “satisfy the stakeholders that needed to be compensated”.

She cited instances where “…sometimes you value their properties and conclude that they are not worth a certain amount but somehow somebody is telling them to stick to a particular amount”. 

Squatters take over land

Meanwhile, squatters have taken over the land under the Mallam interchange and have turned the place into a retail market for sand and stone.

In a big city where acquiring the smallest piece of land to run tabletop business could cost you your life, improvising could be the best option for every artisan.

When this improvision becomes a risk to one’s life, however, then there’s cause for worry.

This is the brief about the kind of venture that some persons have subjected themselves to, under the Mallam interchange.

One Edward Quansah who is one of the leaders in the business told Joy News’ Joseph Ackah-Blay that they are aware the land belongs to the government.

“The Accra Metropolitan Assembly has prevented us from building tents here,” he said.

He explained that they were on another side of the road but when the interchange was constructed, they had to move beneath the interchange to be closer to the tipper trucks.

The traders agree that the site is risky, considering that vehicles have fallen from the overpass to where they reside.

Joseph Ackah-Blay also reports that the chronic stench at the place is proof that parts of the site have been turned into an open defecation site.

Watch the report below