Major new sewerage scheme for Accra

Accra have launched a major sanitation and drainage project, in answer to calls from the nation’s president John Dramani Mahama for a seachange in citizens’ attitude to refuse disposal.

While Mahama acknowledged that Accra’s population explosion had contributed to high levels of bad sewerage and sanitary conditions, he said the widespread custom of dumping rubbish into drains posed a serious health threat as well as impeding the achievement of the capital’s Millennium Development Goal on sanitation.

Mahama, who made his comments on 16 January during the inauguration of the Accra Sanitary Sewer and Stormwater Drainage Alleviation plan, said the success of the project would encourage government to introduce similar schemes it in all other regional capitals.

Central to the $595 million project, which is being financed by the Standard Charted Bank, World Bank and the Export and Import Bank (EXIM USA), is the dredging of the flood zone in the areas around the Odaw basin and the Korle Lagoon in central Accra.

It also includes the construction of 20 hectares of sedimentation basins upstream for the Odaw channel, the provision of waste collection services, and a feasibility study on a new landfill site.