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We were getting submerged in that cacophony of noise of Accra becoming a millennium city until the rains of Tuesday, October 25, 2011, exposed the hollowness in that boisterous claim. After hours of heavy rainfall which went deep into the night the previous day, Ghanaians woke up on Wednesday to the unfortunate realisation that half of their national capital was floating on dirty, stinking flood waters. Almost the whole of Accra West became a huge pond with a flotilla of containers, kiosks which served as shops and sleeping places. Floating on the flood waters were various household items including mattresses, trunks, chop-boxes, fridges, television sets and cooking utensils. It was unbelievable but true that vehicles were overturned and drifting on the waters which also exhumed tonnes of refuse which lay buried under what were supposed to be the city�s drains. The floods, apart from misery inflicted on individuals and corporate institutions, also seriously exposed the big slum Accra, our national capital, has become. Most of the places which the flood took a heavy toll on were clearly unplanned and lacked the necessary facilities to drain the rainwater. Think of areas like Odawna, Alajo, Santa Maria, Sowutuom, then you can conjure a picture of containers placed everywhere, houses built in a haphazard manner and drains choked to the full with waste of all descriptions. We all know the problem. We seem to know the solutions. What we lack is the capacity, the ability, the sincere determination and wherewithal to pursue a vigorous drainage development programme. To begin with, our city drains are very small and shallow and, therefore, lack the capacity to take large volumes of water. Second, they are not covered and, therefore, are an attraction to careless and filthy people who throw rubbish in them. Apart from these are the bigger problem of illegal structures that have sprung up everywhere, taking over watercourses, drains and marshy lands. It seems economic survival has overtaken all other survival instincts and, therefore, workshops, stores and markets have taken over every available space without any regard for building plans. Over the years, our corrupt nature has taken strong possession of us, making it difficult for our state institutions to operate firmly and fairly. That is why unauthorised structures have survived even though we always see; �Stop Work, Produce Permit� boldly written on the walls of these structures. The permits are never produced and the work never stopped. The city authorities and the Town and Country Planning Department have become impotent to exercise their mandate because of the lure of the envelop which their officials are unable to resist. Our situation is not made better because of our brand of democracy which gives political twist to every action of the government. Since our departure from military dictatorship to multiparty democracy by virtue of the 1992 Constitutions, all governments have made some amount of effort to enforce building codes to no avail. You only need to bring down one or two buildings constructed at the wrong place or without permit, and the political vampires who want to capitalise on everything to make political gain condemn the action. We have become so desperate for political power to have access to state resources that we do not do what is the common good to be pursued with common determination. Today, political parties want to remain in power or attain it at all costs and, therefore, find it difficult to enforce laws we have made ourselves to ensure sanity in the system. Refuse collection and disposal has become a major problem for the country. Things have changed but we are still living in the past. What we termed waste management is actually refuse relocation. We collect from one place and dump it at another place. In other words, we attempt to save some citizens from filth and rather compound the condition of other citizens in another part of the city. Waste recycling, which is big business elsewhere, is still remote to us and so we watch with helpless abandon while the capital city is being buried under tonnes and tonnes of garbage. From the photographs of the floods published, it was clear that choked gutters and drains played a big role in the floods. Most major cities have made good use of the rivers flowing through them. Take the Thames in London, the Hudson in New York, the Potomac in Washington DC, the Seine in Paris. These rivers have been effectively used for water transportation, for harbours and for ecological balance. Our Odaw which passes through Accra is a different story. It is dead and only brings death and destruction to city dwellers who find themselves close to its banks. The floods are not only causing personal distress to individuals but are also doing damage to our investment ambitions. Graphic Road particularly suffered a lot and it was sad seeing big companies like Toyota Ghana Limited, Japan Motors, Azar Chemicals, Rana Motors and many others virtually submerged and products worth millions of Ghana cedis destroyed. This cannot be an invitation for other companies to come and do business here. President John Evans Atta Mills responded the way others before him ritualistically did. First, to wade through the muddy, filthy flood waters to declare sympathy for victims and to make big promises to help victims recover from their shock and loss and then make a bigger promise to take all possible measures to prevent a recurrence of the disaster. This year, we heard from the lips of the President that $500 million is being sourced to embark on major drainage works in Accra. We know, however, that all things being equal, the rains will come again, the floods will come and there will be another big promise to the people of Ghana. Talk, talk and talk, no action. That is a speciality no one can take away from us.