Our Flood Experts: Working Hard or Hardly Working?

Finally, it seems the much talked-about rains are here. And even though there have been media reports of some havoc in some of the regions, the good news, for now, is that Accra, the nation’s capital, is yet to experience any of its dreaded floods.

But that is not to say that we are safe. This is because the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMA) still insists that the worst, regarding rains, floods, et al, still lies ahead.

Flooding has virtually become an annual ritual for residents of the nation’s capital, but despite the fact that several lives, homes and investments get destroyed with each year’s floods, the situation has not been seriously handled as it ought to.

Playing the vulture, we talk about it, agree on the causes and what needs to be done to prevent them, then we go to sleep until the following year when they set in again.

Interestingly, the supposed ‘experts’ and radio panelists that do the post-flood analyses have also not changed over the years. It is the political players that have been rotated depending upon which political party is in government.

As for the technocrats at the Metropolitan/Municipal Assemblies and the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, the least we talk about them, the better.

Most funny is the report that despite this year’s warnings, a paltry 6 million have been earmarked to fight the imminent ‘monster’ in the whole of Accra.

Seriously, it is becoming more glaring that, as a people, we have not acted decisively and wisely in this particular matter. In fact, those who, by their attitudes, deliberately choke the few existing gutters/drains must also bow their heads in shame.

What we have mastered and done with some outstanding success is to play the usual blame game between the leading political parties.

We go back and forth fingering ourselves until the rains set in again and cause even more havoc. Then we pause to make fresh analyses and then return to the political blame game.

THE PUBLISHER is calling for a stop of the routine nonsense.

We sit on a time-bomb; hence the need for clear leadership characterized by decisive actions, irrespective of whose toes gets stepped on.

We cannot continue this way. It smacks of irresponsibility. It is shameful. It is an avoidable disaster we wait to endure each year, and it has to stop.

We are therefore calling for a whole revolution cum national reorientation on the human activities that have remained the cause of flooding in Accra.