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Mr. Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, the Metropolitan Chief Executive of Accra has said the demolition exercises which crated an avenue to desilt the Odaw River and the Korle Lagoon, are beginning to show positive results.

He said judging by last Friday’s heavy downpour, many parts of the city could have easily experienced flooding, “but for the fact that the dredging and the desilting was ongoing, it reduced the impact.”

Mr. Vanderpuije made these observations, when he paid a working visit to some of the demolished sites as well as the areas being dredged along the Odaw river and the Korle lagoon.

He said after the downpour, he led a team from the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to tour parts of the city to assess the impact of the rains.

Mr. Vanderpuije said one remarkable revelation was the fact that even though both water bodies were filled to the brim as a result of the volumes of water upstream, both the Odaw River and the Korle lagoon were able to contain the volumes of water because of the dredging.

“You can see the volumes of water, smoothly meandering their way through the city to empty into the sea,” he said.

Mr. Vanderpuije said what the team saw had served as a motivation to the AMA to extend the dredging to areas behind the Neoplan station, to pave the way for the second phase of the dredging of the Odaw river.

He said the dredging which was the solution to the flooding, would be sustained, adding that anybody living at a place that obstructs the free flow of water bodies would have to be cleared.

Mr. Vanderpuije asked the residents of Accra to join hands with the AMA to clear the city of obstacles posing a challenge to development and resilience to natural hazards.