Enact Law To Prosecute People Building On Waterways…Damak Sanitation Watch & HealthIt is of no doubt that flooding in Ghana has become a perennial problem that seeks to deal with people who engineer or attribute to such occurrences characterized with utter lawlessness on the part of the citizenry.
The behaviour of Ghanaians toward confronting flooding over the years seems to depart from the deal situation. We have come to a point where we have to apply legal actions and say 'enough is enough' and enact a law to prosecute people who erect buildings in an unapproved waterway or discriminately disposed waste illegally. Rains have become a death trap for people living in slump areas and waterways in the country-anytime there is a perennial downpour due to the overload drainage systems and bad practices by inhabitants. These observations according to the Director of Damak Sanitation Watch and Health, Mr. Akgri Mbabugri Daniel, Ghana by now should have learnt some key lessons from the June 3rd disaster which claimed many lives and provide enough structural provisions to confront future occurrence.
As a country aiming at transforming Ghana to the status of cleanness city in Africa, recommendations of the demolition of illegally erected buildings in water areas is a total failure and late approach by cities authorities to solve the problem of flood. The flooding situation requires a deeper stakeholder consultation to identify the chief objective to stop inhabitants from building in an unapproved waterway. But our case as a country is to wait for them to build and when there is flooding we go around and demolished, is a sign of leadership weakness and failure. The attitude, according to Mr. Mbabugri Akgri, cities authorities, engineers, Chiefs and the security apparatus must be blamed for failing to constitute concrete policies that would have to safeguard the building of houses and structures that prevent the free flow of water. The outfit has observed that there is a lack of a coordinated effort between the state governments and the traditional authorities to regulate the release of lands to people. If the government is bent on resolving flooding issues in the country, the government has to collaborate with the landholders to drive every would-be builder in unapproved water areas. It is of keen interest to note that, ending perennial flooding in the country has to do with self-commitment and the can-do spirit that we all need as a country not blame games. We have to contribute collectively especially chiefs who are the landholders should exercise their custodian rights to desist from releasing lands situated in water areas for builders.
That said, the government on it part should provide enough financial support for the waste management companies for them to employ more waste workers and logistics to ensure gutters and cities are frequently clean. If this is not seriously ironed from the angle of the chiefs and government, the forward march to end flooding will not be materialized. ''There is a saying that there are no smokes without fire'', hence our fight to end flooding should not be centered on demolishing of buildings, but stakeholder consultations with the landholders to stop releasing lands to builders. By Ben Barnes Asalemba
