Public And Personal Safety In Ghana; Managing Perennial Flooding {1]

On Ghana attaining 60 and counting, the time has come for the nation under the current government to identify issues that need to be given serious and urgent attention. To be able to succeed in pursuing this course, likely to promote public and human safety, there is the need for a special desk to be placed in the seat of government for the purpose of following up on implementation and monitoring of the programs.

The issues that come to mind are fire outbreaks at petrol and gas stations and our homes; flooding in flood prone areas in Accra and other parts of Ghana; truancy at school and work places; road accidents due to huge volumes of water that collects on the road during rainfall and human trafficking to West Africa, North Africa and Asia etc.

One serious occurrence that needs urgent attention is the flooding that occurs almost yearly at Kwame Nkrumah circle, other parts of Accra and other towns across Ghana. Kwame Nkrumah Circle where a new interchange has been built is in danger of being destroyed if action is not taken to deal with shortcomings there.

flooding
Even before the Kwame Nkrumah interchange was constructed the authorities were aware that being a low lying area that part of Accra would continue to suffer from flooding periodically. For some time now the Accra Metropolitan Assembly and the Ministry of Works and Housing have in the recent past awarded contracts for the dredging of Odaw river and the trenches around the Kwame Nkrumah Circle.

However, the recent two-hour rainfall which caused flooding in most parts of Accra and Kwame Nkrumah circle, which impeded movement of vehicles seems to show that the dredging which cost the nation millions of cedis seem to have done very little to solve the problem of flooding during slight or heavy downpour of rain. In reaction to the flooding, the President of the Association of Building and Civil Engineering Contractors of Ghana, Martins Nnuro has warned that the Kwame Nkrumah circle road network would be destroyed in no time through continuous rainfalls.

Yes, last Sunday’s rains exposed the poor drainage system exposing the over 74 million euros three tier interchange to danger. The new Minister of Works and Housing Mr. Attah Akyiah has proposed a solution do deal with the annual flooding. The minister says that the engineering designs which have been on the ministry’s files, put the cost at about 700miion dollars to fix the flooding in Accra and save the interchange.

That is good but we must be serious with the methodology in this in order not to repeat the costly and empty business as usual. By this arrangement the entire project would not be taken away from the Ministry of Works and Housing.

The desk at the seat of government would only have to compliment the work by the ministry and provide a follow up and reminder on the project timelines. To cap it all the desk in the seat of government would have to seek information on flood prone areas and the havoc it causes to people and properties with the view to advising the authorities concerned including National Disaster Management Organization [NADMO], to take urgent actions to deal with it

Executive Director
eanfoworld for sustainable development
[email protected]/[email protected]
0244370345/0208844792/0274853710