Samson Ahi, the former deputy minister of Works and Housing has argued against the $700 million estimation by the government to solve the flooding crisis.
Speaking to Citi FM Eyewitness News, Mr Ahi said, “when we were in office, we were making efforts to address the entire drainage system problem in Tema and Accra and this was going to cost us around $530 million. This was only last year [2016]. I don’t know where he [Mr. Atta Akyea] is getting his information from.”According to him, the previous administration had already drafted plans for a master drainage system as part of the Conti Project, that was estimated to cost $350 million.
Mr Ahi further explained, “there is a master plan for drainage in Accra and that master plan is what we wanted to use to engage the Conti people from the US to come and assist us address the problem and so the minister is using the same scope of work and it is going to cost $700 million? I do not know.If the same technical people, after leaving office two months, will give different advice and the difference will be close to $200 million dollars, I will be surprised.“Following Sunday’s heavy downpour that left many parts of the capital Accra extremely flooded, the current Minister of Works and Housing Samuel Atta-Akyea said that government had developed a plan to solve the flooding issues.He indicated that the technical expertise required for the project was already available, but the funds for the project which he estimated at $700 million would need to be sourced.
Remarking further on the estimated cost of the project, Mr Ahi said, “I will have the opportunity to speak to the State of the Nation Address. I will use the platform to call on the minister to come clean and explain to us the components of that $700 million.“
