It rained on Sunday evening and many segments of Accra got flooded. Indeed, areas not flood-prone were not spared the negative fallouts of the deluge.
Every year, for the past decade or so, we have had to devote our leader to the approaching raining season.
Here we are again mid-May and the signs of the approaching flooding season are too visible to be ignored.
That areas not flood-prone endured flooding on Sunday is ample warning that the raining season is going to be relentless and devastating.
We hear that a taskforce of sorts has been set up by the government to deal with the season, but as to its ability to deliver on its mandate of mitigating the negative effects of the approaching season will depend on time.
With the season of deluges almost here, we can bet that it is too late for anything to be done to forestall the usual destructive floods.
Accra, experience has showed over the years, cannot withstand a two-hour downpour without flooding. When therefore last Sunday’s downpour went beyond an hour, weather observers could tell that flooding was in the making, and so it was.
The multi-million dollar Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) project, commenced in the past few years, is yet to make any impact, the reasons for which are beyond our ken.
The relevant agency and the oversight ministry could do Ghanaians a favour by telling us whether or not the project is alive or moribund.
Be it as it may, the flooding in Accra although to some extent a force majeure about which little can be done in terms of engineering, human shortcomings are also responsible for the occurrence.
Climate change is real and its impact on the rather unusual downpours cannot be ignored, which is why the global conversation on how to contribute towards mitigating it should be of concern to us as a country. The ministry created recently in response to this natural phenomenon should not be a cosmetic matter but a serious matter.
Countries with better managed cities have not been spared the effects of climate change, let alone ours which is yet to respond effectively to the realities of the global occurrence.
Government should show more commitment to dealing with infractions which contribute towards the flooding of parts of the nation’s capital at this time of the year.
Construction of structures on waterways is now a feature of our country, especially the national capital.
The MMDCEs are ill-equipped to deal with such infractions, the outcome of which is the eruption of structures on waterways, the owners of which are influential personalities in society.
The Odaw River responsible for part of the city’s drainage, not forgetting the Korle Lagoon, both remain choked by plastic pollution.
Our reckless management of our Ramsar sites and mangrove swamps to the extent that some portions of these are being reclaimed for the construction of residential apartments points at how the authorities and we the citizenry could not care a hoot about our environments.
The rains are here again, and considering the experience of the past years and the fact that nothing substantial has been done to forestall flooding coupled with our attitudes, there is no end in sight to the annual destruction of property by the deluges.