THE ANNUAL ACCRA FLOOD; Who is to Blame?

Just two months ago the Volta River Authority (VRA) put us into a serious fear and panic after it announced a possible shut down of more turbines of the Akosombo Dam to avoid damage to sensitive equipment and plant as the water level keeps going down. Nothing could be done to adverse this status quo except praying for more rains this year. Our wishes were granted as we woke up to continuous rains all day long across the Capital, Accra. At least, we will be sure of the dam getting a little of water to keep it functioning. However the story turned sour and sad after the torrential rains on Wednesday, June 4, 2015 and Accra floods again. This year’s flood was accompanied by a massive fire outbreak. The flood caused leakage of an underground fuel storage tank which later exploded destroying properties and killing about 200 people.

Accra flooding is an old template. It has been happening almost every year, attracting attention from government, but not tackled. There have been several discussions on the factors causing the floods from both ordinary residents and experts. Irresponsible land abuse, the development of physical structures within waterways, deposition of solid waste in liquid drains, lack of official action to enforce laws/regulations, and many other factors were made clear as the causes since 1959 after the country recorded similar incident. As the Adage goes; Problem known is half solved so why is Accra still experiencing this problem? Who is to blame? Every year this is what we hear; a repetition of the causes from the city engineers, condolatory messages from government as well as politicians and the Media frenzy. I am not a prophet but can assure you that not until the authorities do the right thing to ensure that land use is regulated by law, what has been happening will continue to happen. We will not cease to experience the Annual Accra Flood until we the citizenry desist from the practices of dumping solid waste into liquid drains.

Today, June 5, 2014 marks exactly one year we saw the last Accra flood. The headlines were not different from that of June 1959, July 5, 1995, June 13, 1997, June 28, 2001, May 5, 2010, June 22, 2010, February 24, 2011, May 31, 2013, June 6, 2014 and July 4, 2014. For how long will we be seeing this recurring paragraph in our dailies; “Once again, torrential rains have hit the Accra metropolis, creating heavy floods in various paths of the capital that have caused great havoc to lives and properties. The team of Ministers, the mayor of Accra, officials of the National Disaster Management and the security agencies are going round to ascertain the impact”.

When will the city engineers and planners get to work? Our attitude as irresponsible citizens must change, the filth must stop. Planning and Indiscriminate enforcement of the Law does it all. Our institutions must work again.