Isaac Asiamah, Chairman of Parliament’s Works and Housing Committee, has asked Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to allocate funding to address the country’s recurring floods.
This comes after the Minister for Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye, requested that Parliament consider transferring a portion of the road and sanitation charge monies to the Ministry to assist in resolving the problem.
In response to the presentation, Mr Asiamah stated that the Ministry must be sufficiently resourced to carry out its duty.
“I am happy today that the finance minister is here. When we are prioritising areas, flooding should be indicated. Last year, the minister for works and housing was given only 18 percent of his release, so he is really suffering. Minister of finance please finance the works and housing ministry so that they can work,” he stated.
The Minority Chief Whip, Governs Agbodza however called for attitudinal change as government makes efforts in mitigating the impact of flooding.
“Sometimes it is not merely the non-availability of money. The problems are not natural disasters, we are creating them. The Minister of Finance can release every money if we all neglect the regulations around building in waterways he will give us the money, he can actually go and desilt all the gutters but because we have gone to block more channels the flooding will still happen,” he stated.