We may count the dead again

Trust my words, mark them down, this mourning and anguish outbursts will soon sink and business as usual will flip to further pages. The littering will continue, buildings will further spring at an unauthorized places any way. Faceless faces will grant them access. Cash will change hands in the dark. Corruption knows well how to seal the mouth of the law and blind the sight of principles, perhaps temporarily.

Next year this time, we may be counting the dead again, just that we don’t know if fire will compliment flood to kill us. As to how many will be burnt and drowned in lakes of jet-like fires on the spurs of angry flood waters we cannot tell. Indeed, we cannot predict whether it will be me or you, your wife or husband, sons or daughters. We don’t know whether it will be in the day or in the night.

I am not a dooms day cult sorcerer, neither am I a curse seeder, I want a challenge that can falsify my stand – the President of the Republic, Mr John Mahama, the Interior Minister, Mark Woyongo and of course the bearded Accra Mayor Dr Alfred Oko Vanderpuije and those we gave the mandate to protect us.

The last couple of weeks brought glory to Dr Oko. Giant bill boards bore beautiful portraits of him brandishing with pomp, the inaugural prize of President Jose Eduardo Santos best mayor award in Africa. He was, in fact, the toast of an international conference which recently rallied mayors across the world in Accra to plan new paths and channels of proper city management. But nature seems to have questioned his mayoral crown when floods ran over Accra causing the death of 152 strong men and women.

Reports said the angry floods sipped underground and damaged fuel storage tanks of the Goil fuel station near Kwame Nkrumah Circle. Then there was a big bang, the underground oil tanks burst into a convoy of flames taxiing the surface of rioting waters and consumed innocent people waiting for the rains to stop for them to go home. The havoc was massive.

Dr Vanderpuije was seen at the scene with a dutiful security officer firmly fixing a huge umbrella over him like a world king who must not be touched by rain water as he inspected the ruins across the city where many met death painfully through the fangs of fire and flood.

Dr Vanderpuije has been one of the hard working mayors in recent times with some of his actions and sometimes inactions birthing many criticisms. He is mostly seen directing traffic during rush hours. However, I wonder why organizers of this award did not see the efforts of Mr Ndayisaba Fidele, mayor of Kigali who administers one of the cleanest cities in Africa and regulate the activities of close to two million disciplined city dwellers. Kigalians believe that keeping the city from dirt and diseases is a shared responsible between government and city livers. So in 2008 when Rwanda placed a ban on the production, importation and use of polythene, no opposition used it as a tool against government claiming it would throw people out of job. Dr Rose Mukankomeje, Director General of Rwanda Environment Management Authority, a prestigious Forest Heroes Award winner recently told a gathering of inter-parliamentary hearing on Forest for People that Rwandans did not need experts to tell them how to clean up their country. “We have an obligation to keep it clean and healthy,” she said. This dynamic woman is credited for being the architect of many progressive policies and laws that transformed Rwanda dramatically into stardom in environmental management in Africa.

I don’t think common sense has eluded our leaders, neither good intentions vacate their minds. They have their own problems, we must admit. But I think they are dealing with recalcitrant and undisciplined populace. One would have thought the sanitation day that preceded this historic devastation would record the widest patronage as a sign of a changed heart and a new attitude. According Joy News (Sanitation Day apathy: Kumasi Mayor, Minister angry 06 06 2015) in Kumasi most traders were busily selling on filthy stands with no interest in what was going on-cleaning. This vexing attitude was not different from Accra that bore the sharpest effect of the disaster.

Why should people be coerced to carry out their legitimate duty? In every jurisdiction economies run on taxes but tax payers owe it a duty to tidy their environments to a level then government takes up the rest. It is strange and a vexation to the core for people to assume they pay tax to government and it is government’s duty to clean the environment. And for the purpose of logic if the gutters are blocked which impeded free flow of water causing flood, city authorities must be blamed hence the call for their resignation. Is there any causal connection between resignation of state authorities and flood for which we can predict that once the officer resigns the floods will stop? Given that the officer resigns what evidence do we have that the new person will transform the situation if attitudes remain unchanged? Then can there be a causal link between indiscriminate disposal of waste into drains and inappropriate places, and flooding? Think about it.

When former Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama (May his soul rest) was crying “be highly disciplined wherever you find yourself, keep the gutters free from garbage,” he was left alone, mocked and ridiculed. In fact, his campaign against indiscipline was “beheaded” before he exited office and finally his death. Mr Aliu foresaw these problems and took the step to end them throgh attitude change, yet since Ghanaians disallowed it including his own boss John Kufuor this is the price we are paying.

Today, as we cry our lungs out and rending our hearts for the death of these loved ones, we should take full responsibility for their deaths. “Orange seller, Kofi brokeman (plantain) seller, roasted and boiled corn dealer, sachet water dealer, the market women, the waste you threw into the drains at Circle, in the Odaw River or where you do your daily business choked the gutters and caused the state such a colossal battalion of human resources. Sodom and Gomorrah dwellers you have caused Odaw River and the Korle Lagoon to be referred to as the dirtiest spots on earth (IDRC, 1996).

In many cities across the world lakes, streams and even rivers coexist with cities and their dwellers each in harmonious cooperation with the other. In facts, water bodies in the heart of cities give added beauty, aesthetic bliss. They add flavour to recreation and even attract tourists in some cases. According to Theo Anderson, a Ghanaian ecologist, Korle “Lagoon in Ghana’s capital is one of the most polluted places on earth… it serves as a cesspool for most of the city’s industrial and human waste… it is an environmental nightmare.”

Korle, an attractive natural depression sourced its water feeds from Odaw River and two other drains. It opens into the sea at beaches adorned with historic fortresses that carry tremendous tourist objectives. It was once teaming with huge number of fish species, hosted many bird families. What is left, however, is a nauseating, smelly and dark syrup flowing drudgingly into the sea. Besides its economic benefits Korle if well managed could be a flood mitigation measure to prevent flooding in the city yet is has become our Achilles ’ heel.

Our problems are multifarious when it comes to city management and flooding. Of course building on water ways is identified as a major one. Former President Rawlings seems to have opened the gate when he was reported to have said he wished he had bulldozers to crash all buildings on water ways. Few days after his statement saw a team of angry Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) task force led by AMA boss demolishing structures they perceived to have been impeding flee flow of waters. The same actions were reported at some other places across the city. There were arguments at some places over who determined whether a structure stood on water way or not. Whiles officials were saying “yes” owners of such building say “no it is not on water way and the rage continues.”

This approach is crude and unscientific and will only favour the rich or the fittest who can afford the high cost of justice in a highly corrupt society. The poor may surely be victims of this panic reaction to an entrenched problem. Already, Nii Lante Vanderpuye Member of parliament for Odododiodoo according to Joy news described the demolition unfair because the structures being demolished in his view, were not standing on water paths. He stated that no notice was served the affected and even if notices were served in the past, there must be reminders to inform them.

In attempt to solve problems we may end up creating more serious ones. It is for this reason that President Mahama must temporary put a ban on the demolition exercise. This is because it is governed by feelings not principles.

The next step President Mahama must take is to summon all surveyors, professors of Ghana School of Surveying and Mapping including Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology including civil engineer to form a strong team to first reassess the surface features of Accra. They must be mandated to relay new storm water, sewage and power supply systems that can support the expanding population of Accra. In addition, surveyors must supervise the construction of all drains. This team before every rainy reason must recheck drains and flood gates and ensure they can carry heavy rains into the sea. This is important because as social facts are not static, scientific truths are equally not fixed. They are clashed constantly by arrows of time. So, if as a nation, we are thinking the water courses identified years back remain same then we must be ready to count the dead perhaps again soon.

This process will scientifically and legally identify buildings on water routes with a marked distance away from the identified water channels. It means that structures that are too close to the drains must be removed.

After this, owners of the affected houses must be spoken to, to mitigate the trauma this may cause. This will prepare and give them psychological tenacity to stand the trauma before their houses are marked for the exercise. Relocation viewed from a human right perspective must be voluntary. But since this is a national issue, it will look like a forced resettlement which demand that victims are compensated satisfactorily. This will involve a lot of money but if we want to avoid what happened on June 3, 2015, then we must be ready to spend to avoid a repeat. However, those who new clearly where they were building were not right but fraudulently acquire permit or no permit at all must not be compensated. This is a long walk but worthier than the short cuts we are much interested in.

Again, government must provide the Ghana Meteorological Service Agency (GMSA) with current weather forecast equipment to be able to give timely and accurate forecasts. The AMA must also have a desk that links with the Meteorological department to ensure that rainfall predictions are well circulated to warn to move to move to safety before rain storms.

In conclusion the point must be strongly made that the knee-jet demolition that is going will not solve the problem. Mark my words I repeat.