A sorrowful dark evening, filled with pain and anguish. It was 4 years ago when the twin fire and flood disaster hit the heart of the nation, Accra.
About 160 people lost their lives while a lot more others lost their livelihoods and maimed for their entire lives owing to the heavy downpour witnessed at the then infamous Goil Filling station at the Kwame Nkrumah interchange (Circle).
Workers and traders alike who had closed from work seeking shelter after seeing the dark clouds and thereafter the heavy rains have transitioned into eternity untimely.
In this piece ,I examined whether or not significant steps have been taken to avert any such calamity in the near future as similar statements have been made by government officials in the then NDC government led by John Mahama and the current government led by Nana Akufo Addo .
A day after the tragedy, President John Mahama and other government officials and security agencies toured the city to assess the extent of damage and to console families who have lose loved ones due to the inferno.
Nearly 50 ,000 residents were affected according to Ghana business.com with the cost of damage pegged at 55 million dollars.
A world Bank report estimated that the cost of reconstruction is estimated at $105 million in the transport, housing and water sectors of the economy.
Calls heightened for the resignation of the then Accra mayor, Alfred Oko Vanderpuije for what many described as the dereliction of duty on his side.
The then-government declared three days national mourning to commemorate and sympathize with the grief that has stricken the nation.
These were the words of John Mahama on June 11, 2015 …”
Government has started clearing all the illegal structures obstructing our waterways. The relevant authorities are being enjoined to ensure compliance with the safety codes for buildings and the enforcement of our sanitation by-laws.
We have commenced an urgent clearance of filth and waste from our storm drains and lagoons. We have also commenced the design and implementation of a more adequate and efficient drainage system for Accra. In addition, funds have been provided for the reconstruction of the roads and other public infrastructure that were destroyed by the floods “.
A committee was put together to investigate the cause of the disaster and as part of their recommendations, the following steps were to be taken to avert any atrocities to befall the nation…”The committee recommended among others a complete dredging of the Odaw drain, as well as a ban on the use of plastics as carrier bags, a standardised training, certification and licensing of filling station attendants, the creation of sanitation police, compulsory fitting of all commercial vehicles with refuse baskets or bins and equipping of disaster managers with the requisite tools to effectively handle disasters”.
4 years down the line, many of these actions remained unimplemented aside the construction of the new Kwame Nkrumah interchange in 2016 which has not caused much change in that part of the city regarding flooding and as karma would have it, the refuse we threw into the gutters have come back to us in 2016,2017,2018 and this year, 2019.
The irresponsibility on the side of government and the citizenry is internecined as millions of cedis which could be channelled into other developmental projects are used for dredging yearly to ease the extent of damage to live and property but I must say that the blunderbuss of the annual dredging by Dredgemasters without any other accompanying action is but zilch.
This was evident in 2016 as the news headlines read…” 30 dramatic photos as Accra sinks in floods again- myjoyonline.com, Accra devastated by floods again- Citifmonline.com
In 2017, and this time round under a different government led by Akufo Addo, same scripts were read by the city authorities without any concrete action to put an end to the extent of flooding in the nation’s capital.
In 2017, a myjoyonline headline reads, Early morning rains flood Accra,Kumasi and so many other news stories carried by media houses in Ghana.
That was when there was the realization that only the people in charge of the city have changed but not the perennial floods the city if fraught with.
As predictable as the ritual journey of the sun from the east to the west ,the rains came in April this year and President Akuffo Addo made similar statements his counterparts John Mahama made in 2015. The statement reads….“The news of the death of 12 persons in the recent flooding that hit our nation’s capital is very sad. My sincere condolences to the families of the deceased,” the President said.
He also noted some of the government interventions to counter the flooding that claimed the lives.
“GH¢197 million has been released to the Ministry of Works and Housing to desilt choked drains, the contracts for the works have been awarded, and are ongoing.”
“Beyond addressing issues of infrastructure, our attitudes towards sanitation have to change as well, in order to help tackle the problem of the perennial flooding of Accra. Every effort is being made by the public authorities to deal with this problem,” he added.
After the floods on Wednesday, a representative of the Ghana Meteorological Agency through Joseph Portuphy, Head of Forecasting announces that there is a planned World Bank Project christened the Greater Accra Resilient project (GARI project) to re-engineer Accra with the first phase expected to have a disbursement of 200 million dollars which will make provisions for early warning systems by the Ghana Meteorological Agency for the safety of the citizenry,to create storm drains to collect enough running water within the city, and a sanitation project to frantically tackle the issue.
It is my fervent prayer that this time round, drastic efforts would be made by all concerned to help bring an end to this issue or if not so ,to help reduce drastically, the effects the flood comes with.
Though government is seen to be failing to honor its promises, we as citizens must also commit ourselves to making sure that refuse is well disposed so much so that it would not become an obstacle to the drains to be constructed.
Two days ago ,I learnt representatives of the 2 main political parties were arguing on a morning show about the statistics of death and destruction after the floods this year as compared to the years passed under the John Mahama government and it really pricked my conscience.
It beats my imagination how people sink into the valley of crippling irrationalism in the name of political party loyalty.
History would wonder why we were not up to task in tackling the challenge of the perennial flooding in Accra and many other parts of the country.
Parts of me laments over inaction,
Parts of me pities the “poor” residents of the flood-prone areas,
And all of me breathes a sign of relief as I hope that a year from now, much change would be seen in the city.
By: Evans Aziamor-Mensah