The Accra flood, can we ever win this war?

There are reports that our beloved capital city, Accra, got flooded after an hour of rain. This may be the first, but it will never be the last in the days ahead of us. This has become an annual ritual, with the most vulnerable residents suffering the most.

It is very painful to work all year round and make

Read full articleinvestments only for the rains to come and destroy them. While we may be talking about relocation for the tidal wave victims in Ketu South, that cannot be done in Accra because there is no place to relocate to.

So how did we get here, and is there no way out?

Many were expected that with the presence of a workaholic and no-nonsense minister in charge, this will be the end, but they are disappointed. We cannot blame the minister so much who is also having problems of his own to deal with in parliament with regards to his absenteeism.

Investigative Journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni revealed that the Ministers of Works, Housing, and Sanitation had paid GHS100,000,000 to a company, Dredge Masters, to desilt the Odaw drain. We were expecting that with the amount involved, the problem would be solved, given that Ibrahim Mahama did the same job for free a few years ago.

It now seems like when we attempt to work on the drains ahead of the rain, the situation gets worse rather than better. The situation of the twin fire and flood disasters is still fresh in our minds and many are still grieving over their losses from years ago. Dredge masters a couple of weeks ago also complained about the attitude of encroachers affecting their work.

We all complained that the squatters at "Sodomy and Gomorrah" were our biggest problem with regards to our annual floods and that, with their relocations, our problems would be over. It seems our real problem is now even beginning.

I personally think this war can not be won. I say this based on a lot of factors, the chief of which being our attitude. Until we get bins in every corner of our communities and streets and allow people to drop things off for free, this problem will never go away. There must be serious education after that and a serious crackdown irrespective of political affiliations. It is only when we do this that we can even think of getting close to solving the issue.

Why won't there be floods when we drink water and throw the rubber where we want without any punishment? If others have done it, we can equally do it, but the path to that day has still not been discovered.