A heavy downpour from Tuesday night to the early hours of yesterday visited havoc on parts of Accra, with Dansoman and Kwashieman being the worst hit. At Dansoman, more than 40 houses have been inundated in water, with many people displaced and their property destroyed. Most of the victims are residents of Panbros, Dansoman Ebenezer Down, Dansoman Market and Exhibition Roundabout, 48 Church Street at Kwashieman Motorway and Ayiku Junction. According to Mr Muller Tsatsu Siameh, an official of the Meteorological Services Department, the amount of rainfall recorded by the department was 46.2 millimetres, which he described as heavy. Officials of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) are, however, assisting residents with machines to pump the water from their homes. The affected residents said they could salvage virtually nothing from their flooded homes and, therefore, appealed to the government to come to their aid. Personnel from NADMO, the Drain Maintenance Unit of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), the Metro Roads Department, as well as other organisations, were on site to assess the level of flooding. The residence of Naa Dede Omadru III, the Ga Manye, and those of her neighbours at Dansoman Karikari Brobbey were not spared, as the flood waters entered every part, of their rooms. "I woke up from bed today and stepped right into water," Naa Omadru said in an interview with the Daily Graphic. Naa Omadru, like many of her neighbours, indicated that it was the first-time in more than 30 years that they had experienced flooding in their homes. One of the residents, Mrs Victoria Martey-Quarcoo, said the lack of a storm drain in the area was a major contributor to the flooding. She said residents and the membership of the adjoining Star of the Sea Catholic Church must ensure that monies collected for the construction of the drain were put to use immediately. Madam Doreen Manu, a visibly upset resident, whose house is located opposite the Dansoman Market, said the floods had destroyed everything she had. According to her, although they had experienced some levels of flooding in the past, "this is the worst we have seen. I have lived in this house for about 20 years now. I have not seen anything like this before". The National Co-ordinator of NADMO, Mr Kofi Portuphy, said the organisation was preparing to distribute relief items, including mattresses and food, to the victims. He attributed the flooding to the ongoing road construction on the Dansoman highway and also the fact that the affected homes were lying too low to the main Dansoman highway. The Metropolitan Roads Engineer, Mr Abass Awolu, agreed with Mr Portuphy and explained that the main highway had been raised with the ongoing construction works making it lie higher than the ground floor of the buildings around. He explained that the residents would have to undertake some remedial works on their houses to enable them to cope with flooding in future. Mr Awolu further stated that temporary measures would be taken to avert a recurrence even as work on the road project continued. He indicated that some houses near Panbros (Exhibition Roundabout Down) would have to be demolished to pave the way for the construction of a major drain that would carry excess water into the Panbros Salt Mining site to reduce flooding in the area. Source: Daily Graphic