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An excavator clearing refuse dumped on the streets by the flood waters. Picture: Emmanuel Quaye

Accra floods: Clearing of flood debris underway

Residents in various parts of Accra, who were most affected by last Wednesday’s flooding, yesterday spent the better part of their time cleaning, drying and re-arranging their belongings for resettlement.

Men, women, young and old in areas such as Nima, Adabraka, Odawna, Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Santa Maria, Kaneshie and Dansoman were seen busily collecting water from their rooms and houses onto the streets, while others cleared debris left behind by the floods.
Others were washing their furniture and cleaning electronic gadgets.
The flooding, resulting from torrential rains, brought Accra to its knees last Wednesday night, with unimaginable loss of lives and destruction of properties.
By press time last Thursday, the death toll had hit a staggering 150.
Seventy-six of the victims were killed at the GOIL fuel station at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle that exploded in the midst of the rains, while many others who suffered serious burns were taken to major hospitals in the ciaaty.
Many of the victims of the filling station inferno were among others who had sought shelter at the GOIL near the GCB Towers at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle to escape the flood waters spreading out from the overflowing Odaw River and uncovered drains.
More than 50 security officers from the military, the police and fire service, among others, had cordoned the fuel station yesterday when the Daily Graphic team went there in the morning.
At Nima, the Daily Graphic team found that vehicles that were dragged into the main drain had been removed by their owners.
The affected vehicles included trucks, cars and motorbikes.
However, the road by the drain still remained blocked as some of the containers and refuse collected from the drain were still piled up.
At the Police Hospital, 30 more bodies had been identified by their family members while four people who sustained injuries were still on admission.

Businesses submerged
Salomey Appiah reports that at Santa Maria, Kaneshie and Dansoman, many of the residents were seen clearing the debris, washing their clothes and household items and cleaning up their homes, while others were yet to pump out the water to enable them to have access to their homes.
Schoolchildren could not go to school because their books, uniforms and other materials were either destroyed or carried away by the floods.
Heaps of debris were seen inside and in front of houses with the residents confused as to how to dispose of them.
In some houses, water pumps were being used to clear submerged homes.
It was observed during the visit to these areas that the most affected were shop owners.
At Santa Maria, the operator of a fashion shop, Mr Martin Achiri, and his colleagues were seen busily scooping water from the shop.
He told the Daily Graphic that he had lost expensive materials to the floods.
“A woman who has an engagement today brought about 30 pieces of materials to be sewn, but all have been destroyed by the floods. We do not know what to do and she is demanding that we produce them,” he said.
In another shop, Madam Margaret Amponsah Ntia, who was spotted sorting her things out, said she had lost about 70 bags of rice, sugar and flour and other provisions worth thousands of cedis to the floods.
Meanwhile, a dredging exercise has begun on the Odaw drain to remove all silt and make way for free flow of water in the city.
The exercise being carried out by the Urban Roads and the city authority is expected to clear all silt and filth from the river from the Kwame Nkrumah Circle to the Korle Lagoon.
When the Daily Graphic visited the site, three excavators and about three trucks to move the silt and refuse were already on site.

AMA clearing debris
A visit by the Daily Graphic to some parts of Dansoman, Kaneshie and the Kwame Nkrumah Circle later in the day revealed that a lot of the debris had been left uncollected.
Pools of water had also gathered on some sections of the Dansoman Junction road which were yet to be drained.
At Kaneshie Mpamprom, large chunks of refuse and sand had been left uncollected at the time of filing this report.
Meanwhile, the Ablekuma Central Sub Metro of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) had begun collecting debris in parts of Kaneshie.
Articulated trucks and excavators were spotted busily clearing the debris at Kaneshie, reports Charles Andoh.

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