The Minister for Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye, has urged Ghanaians to support the government’s efforts to mitigate the perennial flooding in the country.

He said the government’s efforts will be meaningless if the country’s citizens continue to dispose of solid waste into drains and build structures on waterways.

“We have desilted about 1000km of drains across the country. All this will go waste if we, as citizens, are not responsible,” he stated.

The Minister said this when he addressed the media during a tour of Kumasi, following the recent flooding in the metropolis.

According to Mr. Asenso-Boakye, an analysis conducted by the Hydrological Services Department’s team revealed that some of the drains are choked with solid waste, presumably deposited by the people in the neighbourhood.

He, therefore, urged the public to complement the government’s efforts by ensuring that they dispose of their waste properly and also do not build on waterways, so that the huge sums of money being used for desilting, dredging and drainage works across the country would not go to waste.

The Minister revealed that about 300 structures in Kumasi are built on waterways, thus blocking the free flow of the water. He added that steps will be taken to demolish them in order to improve the drainage systems.