About 1 Million Cubic Meters Of Waste Removed From Odaw River

Work is on-going on the Odaw drain to dredged it of silt to enable the smooth flow of rainwater and prevent the perennial flooding which normally occurs in most parts of Accra anytime it rains.

The 80-meter-deep storm drain has been heavily choked by sand, debris and largely plastic waste materials blocking the flow of rainwater which resulted in Ghana's hard hit flood disaster four years ago among others.

Dredge Masters, a leading provider of modern technological dredging services are on site busily desilting and dredging the Odaw drain and the Korle Lagoon with their heavy duty machines and equipment carting heaps of silt piled along the banks of drain to be conveyed to the final disposal site.

The Operations Manager of Dredge Masters Ghana Limited, Mr. Sena Adiepena in an interview on site explained that the company is working day and night to restore the drainage efficiency and holding capacity of the channel and lagoon to avert any flooding as the rains sets.

He said the scope of work starts from the Odaw Onyasia confluence at Carprice in Accra, through the Avenor, Kwame Nkrumah interchange, Agbogbloshie, South Kaneshie drain and the Korle Lagoon.

Mr. Adiepena revealed that over 1 million cubic meters of dredged materials was removed from the channel and lagoon since the company was awarded a two-year contract in 2016 to dredge the drain and the lagoon and also re-construct an interceptor to treat pollutant water.

He said despite the challenge of little re-occurring silt that finds its way back into the drains as a result of unpaved banks along the storm drain, the company will continue the dredging exercise as 70% of silt materials has already been collected.

In June 2016, a two-year contract was awarded to Dredge Masters Ghana Limited to desilt and dredge the Odaw channel and restore the Korle Lagoon to avert the perennial flooding in Accra under the Accra Sanitary Sewer Storm Drainage Alleviation Project.

The initial agreement was extended in February 2019 for maintenance dredging of the Odaw channel and the Korle Lagoon under the same scope.