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21.05.2012 General News

NADMO, Zoomlion Prepare For Rainy Season

By Sebastian Syme - Daily Graphic
A tumbled bill board at Abossey Okai, near the central mosque in Accra, following a windstorm.A tumbled bill board at Abossey Okai, near the central mosque in Accra, following a windstorm.
21.05.2012 LISTEN

A tumbled bill board at Abossey Okai, near the central mosque in Accra, following a windstorm. The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and Zoomlion Ghana Limited have put measures in place to minimise the impact of any disasters during the rainy season.

As part of the measures, NADMO has obtained excavators, water pumping machines, chainsaw machines and towing machines to embark on rescue operations in the event of any disaster. It has also acquired haulage trucks to facilitate the distribution of relief items.

Besides these measures by NADMO, Zoomlion has also deployed teams to de-silt drains in the Accra metropolis to help reduce any major flooding during the rains.

The preparedness of the two organisations comes in the wake of the violent windstorm that rocked the southern part of the country last Saturday which left many billboards and trees tumbling, as well as reported loss of lives in some areas.

A Deputy National Co-ordinator of NADMO, Mr Sylvester Azantilow, who apprised the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday on the organisation’s level of preparedness ahead of the rainy season, said NADMO was also collaborating with the 48 Engineers Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces to respond to distress calls.

He said NADMO had, in the past, embarked on educational campaigns to ensure that Ghanaians observed good environmental practices to avert flooding during the rainy season.

He said those campaigns had paid off because there had not been any reports of flooding so far in the year, unlike it used to be in the past.

The Public Relations Officer of Zoomlion, Mr Robert Coleman, in an interview, said the task force had been deployed to, among other functions, sweep and pick litter that had been indiscriminately disposed of.

He said tree stumps that usually impeded the free flow of water in drains during heavy rainfall and which often resulted in floods were also being removed.

He said de-silting work in the Odaw drain at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle was 40 per cent complete and added that members of the task force who would be paid additional allowances were to cut the trees that fell during last Saturday’s storm.

Mr Coleman said a directive had been issued to supervisors of Zoomlion at the various sub-metros to carry out a comprehensive de-silting exercise, saying that any negligence on their part that resulted in a flooding situation during the rainy season in their areas of operation would be accordingly sanctioned.

Meanwhile, the Meteorological Services Agency has described last Saturday’s storm as the first in 30 years and warned of more of such storms in the coming weeks.

A Senior Meteorological Officer at the agency, Mr Muller Tsatsu Siameh, told graphic.com.gh that the storm, which emanated over Togo, Benin and Nigeria, had been between 55 and 60 knots (110-120 km/ph) and indicated that the speed was comparable to a hurricane.

He cautioned that a repeat of such a storm, this time tracked from Southern Sudan, was likely tonight and attributed that to differences in temperature.

Mr Siameh called for the establishment of Radio Network (RANET), which is used for solely broadcasting periodic weather updates, as is done in Kenya.

graphic.com.gh

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