The National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) has urged the citizenry to clean the environment, especially gutters as the rain sets in.

Mr. George Ayisi, Head of Communication, NADMO, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said keeping the environment clean was a major step towards mitigating the impact of floods in the country and charged all to get involved.

He said apart from other interventions, the Organisation was collaborating with local Assemblies to clean drainages and educate the citizenry against activities that impeded waterways in communities.

“It is necessary to do this campaign because prevention is the most critical of the intervention. The financial burden on the State, entities, and families to provide for flood victims every year can be reduced,” he added.

“However, NADMO is prepared for any distress calls to provide relief items to individuals or groups of persons affected by the rains. We urge them to engage in communal work and the ‘Operation Clean your Frontage exercise,’” Mr. Ayisi said.

The Head of Communication said indications were that the rain pattern would be windy and stormy and asked the populace to take note.

He said NADMO had identified places designated as safe havens and cautioned against people seeking refuge under trees and in dilapidated structures.

The Organisation, he said, had trained personnel in “watermanship” in readiness to rescue people trapped in floodwaters.

The Government recently launched a Social Behaviour Change campaign to manage to flood in the Odaw Basin, covering a significant section of the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area.

It is under a solid waste and flood risk management project called the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) aimed at addressing flooding in the national capital.

Flood-prone areas in the Greater Accra Region are Tema Communities three, five, and 18, Lebanon in Ashaiman, Kaneshie First Light and Dansonman Hanson.

Others are: the Weija Gbawe enclave, Tetegu, Ashaley Botwe, Nanakrom, Afariwa, and some communities in Teshie.