The Honourable Minister for Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Hon. Daniel Botwe has tasked the media to hold local authorities responsible for their actions and inefficiencies that results in the perennial flooding in some parts of the country whenever the rains come. The Hon. Minister emphasised that duty bearers, the local authorities are responsible for implementing interventions that will mitigate and ameliorate the impact of flooding within their local areas.
The Hon. Minister in his submission, indicated that by performance standards, MMDAs are required to to utilise 20 percent of their Internal Generated Fund (IGF) to support improvement in sanitation and waste management and drainage maintenance within their localities. He, therefore, emphasised that it is important for citizens to know how their revenues are utilised.
According to the Minister, it is the responsibility of every local Assembly to identify flooding hotspots within its catchment area and develop plans to minimise and mitigate the impact of flooding in their jurisdictions.
The Hon. Minister made these remarks at a meeting with Chief Executives and their Coordinating Directors of beneficiary Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies of the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) Project at the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development on Friday 24th March, 2023. Under the Project, the beneficiary Assemblies are given grants to support improvement and maintenance of drainage infrastructure through a performance-based grant system. The grants disbursed to the 17 Assemblies among others was to be used to desilt and dredge priority drainage infrastructure and also procure equipment needed to facilitate the execution of these activities.
He indicated that this year a total amount of GHC7, 150,500.00 will be disbursed as grants to the 17 GARID Assemblies and each of the beneficiary Assemblies will receive GHC420,971.00.
The GARID Project is an inter-ministerial project implemented by the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development (MLGDRD), Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources (MSWR)and led by the Ministry of Works and Housing (MWH).
The Project Development Objective is to improve drainage, solid waste management and provision of services and infrastructure in priority flood-prone informal settlements within the Odaw Basin.