Government is set to construct a temporary drainage as a matter of urgency on the Kasoa to Winneba section of the N1 to mitigate the flooding situation on that stretch.

The Head of Drainage at the Ghana Hydrological Authority, Richard Kofi Amekor, said due to the dire situation, officials could not wait for the completion of the main storm drain on the stretch.

The drain which is under construction is only about 30 per cent complete at the moment. As a result, Mr Amekor said it had become necessary to create temporary chambers along the stretch to make it easier for the water and the debris to flow whenever it rained.

Mr. Amekor said this yesterday when the Minister of Roads and Highways, Francis Asenso-Boakye, led engineers and officials from the ministry and the Ghana Hydrological Authority to visit the Kasoa-Winneba section of the N1 to assess the aftermath of the latest flooding incident in the area to identify the possible causes to proffer solution.

There has been heavy traffic between the SCC and Old Barrier stretch since last Monday following a downpour that led to flooding of that section. Mr Amekor said flooding occurred regularly around the Kasoa Old Barrier because of the large volumes of water from the hills, along with a cache of soil onto the road anytime it rained.

The debris, he said, blocked the flow of water through the drains, and consequently resulted in flooding the area. “There’s an existing pipe which is about 1.2 metres in diameter lying parallel to the road, and we are going to create chambers within this pipe so that when it rains, some of the water can flow through those chambers into the outfall,” Mr Amekor said.

Aside from the temporary chamber, he said there was also ongoing construction of a 1.6-kilometre storm drain from Kasoa Old Barrier to the West Hills Mall area which was expected to be completed within the next 17 months.

On the scope of work, he said the drainage would have built-in sand traps which would collect the sand carried by the water for easy desilting. He said the authority would also sign a memorandum of understanding with the municipal assembly for the routine maintenance of the drainage when it was completed.