The Ghana Geological Survey Agency (GGSA) is an important state agency hardly known to many Ghanaians. Such ignorance would have been different were we as a country suffering the fallouts of earth tremors or even earthquakes as others in Asia.

In countries which recently suffered tsunamis and other forms of force majeure, the GGSA’s counterparts are held in high esteem. In Indonesia where an equipment malfunctioning led to the agency’s inability to predict a tsunami, the effect of which was many lives lost, the picture is different.

Last year, we were warned about more earth tremors in the country especially along the fault lines but nothing has been done about it beyond the headline stories. After all, such developments do not result in the destruction of property or even cause casualties. But for how long shall we continue to ignore the poor health of the GGSA which even under its current state of equipment is able to foretell earth tremors?

A German agency is responsible for the equipment which the GGSA relied upon to foretell the increase in movement of the earth’s crust and the seismological readings thereof. We are told that the readings are restricted to only a few areas most of the others not covered because we lack the appropriate equipment.

With global warming and its attendant fallouts now a reality, we cannot afford to ignore the importance of such germane agencies like the GGSA in managing productively predictions of earth tremors or even earthquakes and to therefore prepare adequately for the repercussions.

With a forecast increase in the spate of earth tremors and the uncertainty of earthquakes which are more serious in terms of damage to structures, the importance of addressing the equipment challenges facing the GGSA cannot be overlooked.

Perhaps turning to donors for the appropriate support in this direction would be a worthy effort.

Given the state of affairs now, the poorly equipped GGSA and the dearth of knowledge about the challenges caused by earth tremors or even earthquakes, should there be any such force majeure, we would be found wanting.

The narrative from the GGSA following the recent earth tremor which the agency even in its sorry state predicted, should be a wakeup call for those responsible for equipping such agencies.

We cannot indefinitely think that an earthquake is an impossibility in the country. The MacCarthy Hill towards Weija, Oblogo and an imaginary line which can be traced to the Accra Central Police Station records showed that they suffered structural effects of an earthquake as far back in our Gold Coast days sometime in the 1930s or so.

Ignoring warning signals and so not heightening our preparedness for such eventualities is not a wise thing to do.

The GGSA and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and other related agencies such as the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), should be sufficiently equipped for such force majeure.

The GGSA should be encouraged to undertake one of its mandates of ensuring that structures along earthquake lines meet the necessary standards. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.