Rainy Season Bereft Of Foreboding

Listening to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Adjei Sowah, on an Accra FM radio station yesterday was exhilarating considering the sense of foreboding Accra residents are feeling as we await the onset of the rainy season.

It appears we are already in the season; the city having already registered a consistency in the rains in the past fortnight.

He was upbeat about an incident-free rainy season. The efforts, the AMA under his watch, has put up so far to obviate the usual perennial flooding of some parts of Accra, could be paying. A big pat on the back awaits him should that be anyway.

Accra witnessed a four and half hour deluge a couple of days ago but no part of the city was flooded and that suggests that the dividends from the desilting and other measures unfolded to make flooding impossible, are being realised. We are praying and watching.

The CEO chided gently those who are quick to castigate the city authorities when some parts of Accra are flooded but have not lauded them for the positive signs that the four and half hour without flooding suggested. We are therefore congratulating Mr. Adjei Sowah for a job well done if indeed the positive news is the result of what his office has done so far to stop flooding. If he had his way, he could have assured residents of the city that this year there would be no flooding in Accra. All we can say is amen.

Indeed it would be recalled that government has released a whopping amount of money to stem the perennial flooding of the city – a gesture which lifted the spirits of residents.

Many lives have been lost and properties lost to rains over the years in Accra. It is heartbreaking to note that the lives lost could have been obviated had all played their parts sincerely.

Residents of the city would be contributing towards the obviation of floods when they become more responsible by not dumping domestic and other wastes into gutters as these would eventually impede the flow of rainwater. The construction on waterways which city authorities turn their attention from is another issue residents must guard against.

When those who flout the rules by, for instance, building on waterways have such structures demolished as should be the case, let not unscrupulous politicians use the exercise to seek cheap and undeserved political points.

The bad governance of the years past witnessed the poor execution of projects and these have invariably led to the poorly constructed infrastructural facilities across the city and beyond; another factor responsible for the avoidable floods.

It would be appropriate for the relevant authorities to assure us that the money released by government to save us from the floods has been used for the purpose and that the 2018 rainy season would be incident-free.

The CEO's identification of open gutters in the city as a major factor for the dumping of refuse in drainages is convincing. Let him, however, devise a major operation to cover the gutters of Accra to bring our nation's capital at par with others across the world. Our Francophone neighbours, it appears, have surmounted that hurdle. Why not Accra?