What must be going on here? Another rain, there is chaos all over in the west of Accra. Just two hours of down pour the other weekend, and seven dear lives were lost, hundreds of people were displaced and a massive destruction of both private and public property has befallen us.
Even after one clear week, Accra was still counting the losses caused in some parts of the city by the down pour. The media was virtually choked with the aftermath of it all. No wonder relatives abroad were making calls to find out what was happening. The devastating news had travelled wide. But why should our ears be wasted with the flood of June 19, 2009 as if this was the first time it was happening to us. Many lives have been lost in previous floods where wooden kiosks were carried away.
We have come back to the same story many years after promises of fixing the problems. We do not have committed authorities charged with ensuring better planning and sanitation in our city. That is the news aspect of the whole flooding saga in Accra. In the last 15 years or so, we have had some floods in certain parts of Accra and what do we see? Each time it happens, we get the cameras to follow the �big men� to go and inspect the destruction, console families as they wail over their losses.
They go and look into the big gutters and uncovered drains that are choked to the neck with plastic waste. They announce to the world that structures are in waterways and that they are going to get them demolished to enable the free flow of water. The National Disaster Management Organisation ( NADMO) goes round to rescue stranded families, relocate others, giving them food and blankets kindly donated by some caring individuals and organisations. By the time the rains recede, business continues as if nothing happened earlier. The signs are completely ignored. Meanwhile, more illegal construction and blocking of waterways downstream resume. Nobody really cares.
It is very worrying and quite unacceptable the way our authorities continue to apply themselves to the duties for which they are paid salaries yet year after year, rainy season after rainy season, the same reoccurrences repeat themselves and lives and properties get lost to floods. Should we continue to allow such attitudes to rob us? Does the taxpayer not deserve anything better? In an article I wrote on April 15, 2009, one clear month before the British Parliament was rocked with many resignations mainly from the Labour party and one or two from the Conservative party, I posed the question as to what planet our politicians live on to the extent that they do not see realities even when they become so obvious to the ordinary voter.
In the last and a half week, as parts of Accra got swallowed up under water and the havoc that it brought to families and businesses, I have been asking myself the same question once again � do our leaders, city planners, engineers, road contractors and all the allied services live on a different cosmos other than our own? I have been lamenting because some have argued that the hands of city authorities get tied behind their backs with political interference. Why should the good of the people be sacrificed on the altar of political inconsistencies?
I don�t really get it because these same politicians do promise the people better lives and what better life beats going to sleep knowing that the storms may roar but our houses and structures will stand firm, floods will be a thing of the past and our roads will not eat away with erosion and gaping pot holes because those who should care do really care and they have fixed the problems for us. Law abiding Ghanaians and indeed all those conscientious citizens who are working tirelessly at their work places and contributing to achieving results for a better Ghana should be fed up with the neglect and sheer apathy of our city officials particularly those who have responsibilities to keep the sanity and order of the city intact including durable roads that will stand any rain.
If CEPS officials for example, could be given targets to achieve each year so that the central government will have revenue for the development of our country, why can�t city planners, engineers and road contractors also be given targets each year to instil law, order and quality work in our city planning? We need a beautiful capital that befits twenty-first century Ghana. Accra is choked with illegal structures; our one lane streets dotted with gaping holes are bursting with all shapes of vehicles. Where pavements exist for the pedestrians, hawkers have taken over with impunity, and road-side selling is now a fashion contributing to the regeneration of rubbish in the city.
Enough is certainly getting enough now. Why should the residents of Accra believe in the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) when on a flooded day they tour affected areas and promise that they will do something? Have they not watched on as our city gets swallowed up with illegal structures? Paints are wasted on structures giving warnings of �remove by �.. or stop work� yet soon after, those structures find a new lease to continue with more rigour from the day they receive the red paint warning of AMA.Nobody cares after that.
We pay property rates to AMA yet we provide for our own street lights. We construct our own drains and culverts, level our own streets to make them passable and make our own arrangements for our garbage to be collected. Try going to AMA offices, as a law abiding citizen to pay your property rate and the frustration of go here and wait there as you watch unconcerned officials chat to relatives or friends sitting in front of them while you wait just to pay some money into AMA�s coffers. By the way, why is AMA not encouraging decentralisation in the collection of revenue? Why does one have to go to their offices in the choked city centre to pay one�s property rate? How about the nearest bank or post office?
In the name of accountability, our city officials and road contractors working on roads in the city should be made to account to the nation next time lives and properties are lost in a flood. The people need to know what they have done with their paid time. If they have sat in their cosy offices unconcerned when structures were being erected in waterways and huge uncovered drains used as incinerators and poor shoddy roads dusted with asphalt, then they have to account for their neglect of duty when floods cost us other people�s lives and properties. The rains came down on that fateful Friday night. Havoc reared its head in some areas. The officials have for the umpteenth time, called for the demolition of structures, including homes sited on waterways because they tell us that they are one major cause of flooding in the capital. Fair enough if that is what will fix the perennial flooding of the city.
But those individuals who may have been misled when lands were sold to them or never received any caution or expert advice from city officials throughout their construction period should not be the only ones to suffer. Those who misled them into temptation or looked on unconcerned neglecting their duties should also account for their ineffectiveness and negligence of duty. Since it is human tendency to ignore signs, one can bet that come this time next year, residents of the flood prone areas will be wailing again for damages caused by floods. That is the more reason AMA should launch a �clear the city of lawlessness� campaign now and ride on the back of the demolitions to rid the city of congestion, unlawful structures and above all lawlessness.
When you live in a neighbourhood where you try day after day to clean up your surroundings, buy you get neighbours who take everything away from your efforts and good intentions, you sometimes wish you could just lift your house up on a forklift and re-locate it in another community. We definitely need tougher sanctions to deal with lawlessness. For as long as we have lawless and defiant citizens who thrive on chaos and disorder, we are going to need constant policing of our surroundings to ensure cleanliness and sanity. Is it not time to re-introduce the town council inspectors who used to move from community to community inspecting homes and commercial set ups to ensure that people are being civil with the environment? That offenders get prosecuted for �polluting� the environment?
It will not only be creating jobs but it will also help to bring back the culture of decency and certainly keep the lid on filth and floods when the rains come down. Meanwhile, what do we do about the roads that are gradually becoming non-motorable due to the rains washing parts away and pot holes developing right in the middle of nowhere?
<<Print>>