President Mills has authorized the removal of all structures on waterways as one of the key solutions to the perennial floods that wreak havoc in the capital. Chairman of the National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, Reverend Nii Amo Darko, disclosed this to Joy News. Rev Amo Darko said the President is keen on ensuring that the problem of flooding is resolved once and for all. The presidential directive comes exactly a week after Accra witnessed heavy flooding which claimed at least nine lives, displaced many and destroyed properties running into millions of cedis. Reverend Amo Darko told Joy News the presidential directive is the political backing city authorities need to solve the problem. Members of the Council of State finalized their tour of flood-hit communities around the country. The President at meeting with the council is said to have given the directive. “This morning I was with His Excellency, reporting back to him after our meeting yesterday and he gave us his blessing that these structures must be pulled down,” he said. “Ghanaians ought to be informed that this has nothing to do with the government of the day or the politics that we are practicing; this has nothing to do with partisanship. This has everything to do with human life – Ghanaian lives and property.” “So the president here has given us his blessing and I believe that as a result he has given us his blessing.” Meanwhile the Accra Metropolitan Assembly this morning pulled down a number of structures dotted along the Odaw river. The AMA says this is the first of phase of a number of exercises to mitigate the impact of future floods. The leader of the task force that carried out the exercise, Philip Kwao Lamptey, said this will also make way for the dredging of the river.