An 18-year-old girl has been confirmed dead at Tesano in Accra after being swept into a storm drain during Sunday’s rainstorm.

Residents say the deceased had tried to recover her slippers which fell into the drain but fell and was swept into a storm drain.

An eyewitness, Prince Antwi, told JoyNews the deceased would have been alive if the drain was properly constructed.

“One of the siblings was standing close to where the incident happened. She did not call anyone’s attention to it. By the time we realised, she was caught under the flood water.

“There was nothing we could do. She was lifeless when we got there,” he recounted.

Mother of the deceased, Navi, is still in denial of what has happened to her daughter.

The body of the deceased has since been removed by the Police and deposited at the morgue.

Some Ghanaians have once again questioned the effectiveness of Accra’s drainage system, after parts of the capital got flooded on Sunday, June 5.

They have lamented the continuous effect these floods are having on their properties.

Areas such as Kaneshie, Obetsebi-Lamptey Roundabout, Awudome, Okponglo and Shiashie were hit by the heavy rains that lasted for about four hours.

President warns MMDAs

President Akufo-Addo has charged Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to remove structures obstructing the free flow of water immediately.

This was after parts of Accra were submerged for the second time within a week, after heavy rains on Saturday, May 21 and midnight of Tuesday, May 24.

Speaking at the commissioning of two IHC Beaver Dredger and marine equipment by Dredge Masters, a subsidiary of Jospong Group of Companies at Tema, he asked MMDAs to ensure developers adhere to building permits and to sanction staff who issue permits to buildings on waterways.

According to President Akufo-Addo, the Presidency has established a monitoring unit that will report directly to the President on the progress of the measures.

“As President of the Republic, I will not allow the selfish acts of the few to jeopardise the collective futures of the rest of us. While government does its part, we cannot overlook the negative effects of dumping of refuse into open drains by some unpatriotic citizens,” he said.

According to him, “government, since 2017 has spent some 450 million cedis on the flood control project which resulted in the reduced incidence of flooding, particularly in the flood-prone areas such as Odaw draining channel.”

He said phase 5 of the Accra Sanitary Sewerage and Storm Drainage Alleviation project intended to ensure the Odaw channel is free of filth and debris has been commissioned.

He noted that the construction of the 19km of drains has been completed, adding that “some 1000 km of drain has been excavated, re-channeled and maintained across the country.”

He, however acknowledged that more needs to be done to deal with the issue of flood permanently.