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I keep thinking about this flooding in Accra. In the Odawnaa market, there was a woman who had bags of corndough that had been submerged in the flood waters.

She had a gentleman working for her who was trying to salvage the produce. Now given the quality of the flood waters that had soaked the food, I could only think of how that food was going to cause someone to get ill. She was one of many in the market whose produce had been contaminated. And she was one of many.

Did I mention some areas were submerged under 4 feet of water?
As we walked through the market and the affected neighbourhoods in Odawnaa/Sahara, something struck me. Most of the people who had been affected by the flooding were NOT in a state of shock. Yes. There was despair.

Yes. There was frustration. But not shock. And it occurred to me that the frequency of the flooding has the residents of these areas now resigned to the fact that this is what happens a few times a year. Actually, it has happened four times this year, but we heard more about the June 3rd disaster because of the explosion. The dredging of the Korle reduced the impact of the flooding yesterday, but the drains that lead into the Korle are still not functioning as they should so the problem remains. This is really a plumbing issue on a macro scale. Perhaps we need to take another look at Accra's plumbing. Back to the shock factor. It isn't that I was hoping to see people in shock. However, the absence of that response was an indication to me that most people have resigned themselves to what they perceive to be the 'norm'.

I'm not an engineer, but just looking at it from a purely plumbing perspective- thinking about the physics behind the flow of liquids from one point to the next in a limited channel- this problem can be resolved with a bit of innovation (taking the sanitation - proper waste disposal and collection- as ceteris paribis) and engineering.