The Works and Housing Minister has proposed the adoption of submerged drainage systems in the country to help deal with the indiscriminate dumping of refuse into open drains as a way to minimise flooding.

Samual Atta Akyea said though the submerged drainage system was capital intensive, it had been adopted by most advanced countries and Ghana needed to do same.

He said it was time for a re-engineering of the country's drainage system to ensure that the modified one to be adopted was the best to deal with the environmental challenges.

The Minister added it was essential to open up the sizes of the current drains as most of them were too small to contain the pressures on them.

Mr Atta Akyea was speaking in an interview with the media after he joined the people of New Juaben North and South municipalities in the Eastern Region to desilt gutters and clean the environment.

The exercise was under the auspices of the Works and Housing Ministry, in collaboration with New Juaben North and South Municipal Assemblies and Zoomlion Ghana Limited.

It was to conscientise the people to desist from dumping garbage and filth in open drains.

Mr Atta Akyea indicated that in the course of the exercise, he realised many of the inhabitants were not participating and called on Ghanaians to adopt the habit of desilting their gutters at least every weekend.

He said in 2018, government allocated ¢20 million to the Ministry to tackle drainage problems, and based on the satisfactory conduct of the exercise, the country was able to contain the floods the following year.

The Minister charged the assemblies to apply their sanitation by-laws to the letter and punish the recalcitrant.

The New Juaben South Municipal Chief Executive, Isaac Appau Gyesi,
appealed to opinion leaders to allow the laws to work when someone was found culpable.