Henry Quartey – Greater Accra Regional Minister
Structures along some waterways in Tema have been demolished.
The impunity with which the structures were put up in the first place is telling.
A society where citizens refuse to obey laws and regulations falls below the standard of decency and civility.
The Tema demolition exercise followed the recent visit by the Greater Accra Regional Minister to the area ahead of the onset of this year’s raining season, during which he ordered the demolition.
It is mindboggling to think that but for the minister’s order the status quo would have remained in clear violation of the bylaws and the clear danger the obstructive structures pose.
We are tempted to ask whether those responsible for ensuring that the right things are done have simply given up and whether they should remain at post.
Many doubted that the order would be carried out at all because previous attempts did not yield the desired results.
So many commentaries have been composed about the environmental indiscipline, especially in Accra. State agents responsible for maintaining discipline in public spaces and others including individuals responsible for the anomalies simply do not care not because they are ignorant about the fallouts from their actions and otherwise. They are simply irresponsible.
It was exhilarating therefore when the regional minister ordered the engineers and others in charge to deal with the anomalies.
With the rains about to commence in the country, residents who especially witnessed the fateful June 3 disaster are apprehensive.
Their apprehension stems from the fact that nothing substantial has been done to obviate a recurrence of the incident which left in its trail fatalities and destroyed property.
We cannot continue to bask in the unacceptable conclusion of hopelessness about our situation. Something can indeed be done when the appropriate leadership is in place with available cooperation from the public.
In the past, some attempts at reversing the environmental indiscipline which has plagued the country, especially Accra, failed to fly because of incessant complainants about a so-called human face and outright sabotage in the form of deliberate throwing spanners in the works.
The repercussions of not dealing with the indiscipline being wreaked on the environment can be dire; evidence of which abound.
Those who look on, unconcerned as our gutters are turned into garbage dumps are doing disservice to the community and the country as a whole. Their indifference and the perpetrators of the inappropriate behaviour are equally reprehensible.
We hereby call on the authorities to extend the demolishing exercise in Tema, which has cleared the path for rainwater to flow uninhibited, to Accra where nothing like that has been witnessed yet.