Dear Mr. President,

Mr. President, as a nation, we have truly mourned and we are still grieving the gory mauling to death of our beloved fellow Ghanaians by flood and fire.

As I mourn, I want to humbly say, the perennial flooding of mostly Accra and parts of our nation can be solved out of careful planning and commitment to manage the situation. To start with, it is matter of evidence and record, that flooding of Accra and perhaps parts of Ghana, cannot be regarded, treated and managed as a risk or accident.  The premise of this assertion lies clearly in the fact that, a risk relating to the matter of discussion may not be defined as unknown and unforeseeable event, with its occurrence that may render the living of life in Accra and other areas of the country with some level of difficulty.

 Nevertheless, the flooding of Accra and its environs are on yearly basis. It is therefore neither an accident nor a risk. The triggers and harbingers of rain and flooding if I should be asked, will be, the seeing of day and night. Once we see day and night in our life as a nation, we are solidly aware, that come some time frame within a year, there will always be rains that may have probability of flooding Accra and other parts of the nation. The long and short of the story is that, raining and flooding are not abnormal in the course of the year, but normal. It occurs every year and has become part of us as a nation and can therefore be located on the national calendar.

 To buttress my point, the only year that did not see any form of flooding in Accra and its consequent disastrous effect in any form was the year of hunger- 1983. Apart from this year, every successive year until now only ranked the severity of rain and flooding against each other. Heavy down pour of rain causing its effects of flooding, can therefore not be treated as an accident and handled as such. Rather, raining and its consequent effects of flooding of Accra and other parts of the nation deserve to be treated as normal events. It is the frequency of events that determines normalcy or abnormality. Therefore, the failure of not regarding and not handling seasonal raining and flooding as daily, monthly and yearly issue, is what has seen us where we are today. We have resorted to managing the problem as accidents rather than an issue that deserves the best of attention on daily basis. However, once the issue of rain and flooding is a sure event in every year, it ought to be treated as an event that must be managed to ensure the long terms strategic goals of the nation.

In this piece of my writing to you Mr. President, I categorically project rain and flooding of Accra as normal trait that happens yearly and therefore need to be planned for, budgeted for, worked on and reported on yearly basis as the situation has presented itself. The management of the situation throughout the year on daily basis by continuous elaboration of plans and execution, monitoring and evaluation will mitigate the problem and possibly prevent the painful agonies we need to live through perennially as people.

Mr. President, this is how I can manage the flooding of Accra and part of the nation to mitigate and avoid heavy rain and its negative impact on our nation.

1. Identification of flooding prone areas

My first point of duty call will be to map out all areas that are prone to flooding in Accra and parts of Ghana. These areas will be identified and mapped out as flood prone areas to enable yearly proper zooming on them for the purpose of preventing negative impacts of flooding when the rains set in. I strongly believe that, with the infamous history behind us a nation of flood any time the rains come, the city authorities of Accra should be able to give a record of areas that are prone to flooding. The intensity of flooding in these areas may not be the same. There are areas that could easily flood within hours of rain and others could flood within days of rain. The degree of intensity of flooding could possibly be ranked in the category of normal, bad, higher attention, more attention and most attention. This type of rating is to help determine the level of concentration of planning needed in mitigating effects of flooding on the basis of particular places of interest. The zooming process will enable the taking of area by area to determine what causes the flooding and how it could be prevented, or the least, its negative effects mitigated.

 

The identification and ranking of flood prone areas will lead to the following actions.

 

• Mark structures to be destroyed: Accra as a city I believe was well planned. The original plan of Accra should be published. The published plan of Accra will serve as standard and guide to determine buildings and structures that are illegally cited. This offers the opportunity to land owners, city authorities, as well as landlords to determine whether their structures have been illegally sited or not. The next step will involve determining structures that have been sited illegally and can be proven to block the drainage system leading to flooding any time it rains. It is these structures that must be marked for possible destructions. Other legally sited structures that now seem to be blockage for drainage systems ought to be identified. Due to the pattern of change over the years, the original plan may not be suitable for the present. City authorities may negotiate with the landlords of legally cited structures that also block the drainage paths, for alternative solutions such, involving engineers to ensure drainage system work perfectly even if structures are left intact in their positions or relocating the building at other places at the expense of the city authority.

 

Illegal sited structures that are well proven of blocking the drainage system will then be destroyed after ample and way ahead notification to the owners and occupants. Here, I will suggest the notification to the occupants must as well be published. These identified buildings will therefore become known to the public, as well as the reasons warranting their destructions. The benefit of this process is to add human face to destruction of structures that are on water ways. It also leads to identifying all major stakeholders in the community that are likely to be impacted by any decision to be carried out. The decision therefore arrived at, will turn to be the collective decision of all in the interest of the general good of society. The emotionally charged atmosphere, denigration and name calling can now be well managed when structures are destroyed for reasons of blocking water ways. This is for a simple reason that everyone concern would have bought into the plan.

• Locate gutters that need to be drained: Until our gutters are well covered, our gutters need to be routinely drained. A unit must be sorely responsible for draining gutters periodically. This has become necessary due to climate change. Periods well known as rain seasons are most likely to change than ever, and the rains can set in anytime with negative consequences. The draining of the gutters can therefore not be left to be done only when the rains are expected. The only option is to ensure periodic draining of the gutters at least at flood prone areas while the long term lasting solution will be covering the gutters as well as enacting laws to detest dumping waste materials into gutters.
• Identify places that demand high attention for waste collection and management: Waste management is one key area that needs to be taken a relook at. The level of waste heaped at an area may have a positive correlation with flooding anytime it rains. Flood prone areas must have effective waste management in place for swift disposal of waste. The determination of where waste materials needs to be dumped must undergo careful consideration. The final destination of waste must not only be determined on the basis of only  health hazards to humans, further treatment of waste, environmental concerns but also the possibility of the heap of waste causing flood in times of rains.
• Marking of the places as flood prone area: e.g. with tall reflective lanky poles: It is important to have flood prone areas marked and signaled. If for nothing at all, people living in such environments will be daily reminded of the effects of reckless dumping of waste that are likely to prevent drainage systems in place to work effectively. The identification of such flood prone areas will get people well informed to stay away from such areas, at least during raining seasons. To enhance this, adverts must be run on all television networks for the populace to identify the objects that denote flood areas.
• Review electrification projects: What makes flooding worse and subtle in the loss of life is that, the flood itself may not directly kill, but other things that will come up as flooding occurs. One of such thing is the exposure of naked electrical wires with electricity running through them.

It is therefore important that all electrification wiring of streets, public places, business outfits and individual homes must be reviewed and checked to ensure no naked wires are exposed. To lessen fire out break and electrocution during rain, it is important that, electrical wiring of all structures must be reviewed annually by qualified electricians at least once.

 

Insurance companies must be willing to cover fire only when it is well assured buildings and structures are well wired. In corroborations with the fire service department, every home and business structure must produce yearly anti-fire worthiness certificate. Most insurance and fire service departments may therefore have their own qualified electrical engineers to conduct such checks on yearly basis. This practice could be backed by law enacted in parliament.

 

For the fire service department of Ghana to do this effectively, a token fee of say 5 GHc could be paid on yearly basis at a bank by the landlords as review fee. The receipt is then presented to the fire service department for an appointment for the electrical review. A house and business unit without a yearly review must be liable for a punishment under the law. To this end, it is my expectation that, the fire service department may expand their curriculum to cover a bit of electrical engineering and electrical wiring. Most graduates of electrical departments of our polytechnics must fill the fire service departments. The fire service can also be authorized to recommend breaking of structures as they carry out their annual electrical review.

 

The fire service may also be tasked to undertake naming of streets that are unnamed cum numbering of houses and business in collaboration with appropriate city authorities as yearly electrical reviews are carried out. This will address the lack of relevant home address system in Ghana.

The proceeds from such yearly reviews should be well managed, to ensure almost every community has a fire station that will be actively working. Fire service officials are always entreated to give the causes of fire when it happens. The mere mentioning of the cause of fires after the loss of lives and properties means nothing. It only makes meaning to mention cause of fires, if only such in-depth of knowledge about fires is used to undertake proactive action to prevent disastrous effects of fires.A good implementation of this will hold both fire officials and owners of properties more accountable. If properties are not certified to be anti-fire worthy, then what could be the cause of the fire? It narrows down investigation and then reduces the frequency of fire. Filling stations and other outfits that deal with volatile commodities could have fire reviews done twice in a year. Mr. President, I am sure you will be amazed about the result of this routine electrification review should it be properly implemented.

• Review of strength of structures/telecom towers according to standards: Just as there will be review all electrification projects, engineers must review towers and story buildings to prevent collapse of buildings and towers mostly during raining seasons. The furtherance of this will be standardization of quality of blocks and bricks that are used for building projects. Producers of blocks must be certified to meet standards in order to produce the best quality of blocks and bricks.
•  Identify places in need of rescue team during raining season: Deployment of rescue teams to save property and live will be activated during raining seasons. This action is meant to clean the remnant of ill planning that may still cause the loss of life and property during raining seasons and flooding. Most flood prone areas will have specialized rescuers. These rescuers whiles positioned at specific areas of flood will also have units of task force that will be on constant patrol during raining seasons. Members of this task force must be trained to handle rescue operations including the knowing and skill of swimming and saving drowning people.
• Identify places in need of floating balloons to aid floating in times of flood: Big inflated balloons with loops and in a form of canoes can also be placed on the sides of gutters, lagoons and at areas known for excessive flooding. This is to ensure that, as one strive to survive drowning, an attempt must be made towards these object that could be held on for some time until rescue.

 

1. Formidable meteorological departments

Over the years, there have been weather forecasts that did not reflect the reality at the end of the period the forecasts were supposed to cover. We expected rains from forecasts and sunshine was all what we got throughout day and vice versa. If we are to deal with rains and the necessary flooding it could cause, there will be the need to have precise and accurate information to define the appropriate actions to mitigate the effects of heavy rains. There is no point killing an ant with a sledge hammer neither will it be appropriate to arm self with broom stick when there is a python to kill. To this end, our meteorologists must have the modern day equipments to work with. Aside that, these meteorologists must be seasoned and tested to ensure they deliver the right results to the nation. If there is the need to get some expertise to beef up our national meteorologists to drive towards perfection, we need to do that in the short term whiles we begin to build national capacity to sharpen the expertise of our meteorologists.

 

Information become worthless if it fails to reach those it must impact on. It is high time our meteorologist department had a website that people could go and check weather updates on their smart phones and tablets. Short codes should be created on the entire telephone mobile networks that individuals could subscribe to for weather updates. E.g. If one want to get the weather update for Accra today, there could be a configuration such as send Accra to 1111.

 

The following are the actionable things that could be unfolded with accurate weather information.

• Issue evacuation notice to areas to be affected worse by rain: We are quick to learn most vices and snubbing the virtues from the westernized world. With accurate information on the weather, the appropriate authority could issue evacuation notice way ahead of time. In situations where the notice is served shortly, the appropriate authority could arrange for all what is needed to promote speedy evacuation as demanded.
• Inform individuals as to whether to risk coming out when there will be rain: Telling individuals there will be rain without declaring the expected intensity of rain is not likely to cause the needed impact. Accurate information must be presented. This way, people may put in appropriate action to mitigate or avoid the effect of rain. Weather forecast must entail the direction of rain and the quantity of rain that will fall.
• Determine the level of preparedness to handle expected rain: It is always better to mention on radios airwaves on how people can prepare themselves for an expected rain.

1. Block roads that are prone to flooding.

There must be close monitoring of roads to determine which ones are likely to be flooded based on information on weather forecasts. Lessons learned in the past may be well in place to provide list of roads that are flooded during heavy down pour of rain. Some roads have become noted traps of deaths when it rains. There have been records of floods on roads pushing and carrying cars away humans and vehicles.

 

These roads must be blocked. This will cause enormous traffic jam; however, this can be well managed with real live text messaging. Individuals can subscribe to find out which roads will be blocked during the day before they get out of their homes.

The benefits of tracking and monitoring roads must lead to the following.

• It determine when to announce blocking of roads on airwaves
• Help public to know roads that are likely to be blocked  during raining seasons
• Helps to send authorize live messages and texts
• Create traffic jam risk awareness in motorists- Is it worth driving out knowing well I may be in traffic for hours due to road block?
• Usage of public coach and transport for commuting will be encouraged.

Roads should not be blocked without making the necessary efforts to lessen inconvenience to the general public. There must be a well coordinated effort, with the ministry of transport, to make provisions for routes that will be blocked. Commuters will be advised to take public transport to work when roads are blocked. This is the only way to reduce the level of traffic jam. The foreseeable problem with this is the fact that most motorists will be unwilling to use public transports. However, this can be exploited to carve out doable and workable public transport system in the country. My next write up on public transportation will tackle this.

1. Flood taskforce

There is a need to have team of rescuers to save drowning individuals in times of flooding. These team of rescuers must be well trained and satisfy some criteria of training to be employed to manage flooding. Members of these taskforce will be deployed at areas noted for flooding during raining season.

The formation and deployment of taskforce to rescue people during times of flooding is to handle other causes of flooding that have not be adequately eliminated by flood management plan. It is also to manage the human element that may defy all plans that may be put in place to manage the perennial canker.

1. Life saving jackets

It is not for nothing that, most people take malaria vaccines and drugs before they arrive in this country from the westernized world. For the simple reason they are coming to Africa, where mosquito bites are common and make the probability of suffering malaria verily high. The rains will surely come, to meet us just as the foreigners come to meet the mosquitoes. The difference is that, whiles the foreigners prepare for the mosquitoes, we fail to plan for the rain. The flooding in Accra and its killing instincts does not make only a rain coat or umbrella worthy of protection.

It is simply worth it, to keep a life saving jacket in your car, bag and offices during raining season. Once life is at stake, it is worth it. It is unavoidable tool that is a must have if one works in a flood prone area during raining season. The actionable plan to this effect is to include in announcements and text messages that, life jackets are important tool to have during raining season.

 

1. Rain shelters

Even though Akosombo Dam needs the rain, you cannot easily dismiss the fact that, the raining season is really a nuisance to those who commute forth and back between homes and their working places. It is simply a task on its own.

It is time we build rain shelters at vantage places. These will be shelters people wait under during raining periods and move on after rains.

These shelters should be designed with light materials yet could withstand strong winds. In Accra, for instance, there could be two shelters. One on the hockey pitch and the other on the Afua Sunderland Park.

The benefit of this is that, people need not move about due to possibility of electrocution when there is rain, collapse of structures, knocking down by cars of motorist due to blurred visions and the risk of heavy falls on slippery grounds. Rain shelters will prevent these unfortunate situations

                            

1. Environmental Safety guards

It will be wise to have safety professionals with every petrol and gas filling station. Every owner of fuel or gas tanker needs to employ the services of these professionals. These professionals must be well trained to conduct safety audits, and intensify such during raining seasons.

Enforcement of this will ensure most disasters are prevented.

Mr. President, my suggestion as to what to do to solve the problem is not to disregard the authority in place to deal with the situation. Neither is it geared to towards the denigration of any particular government in power nor accuses any particular regime of irresponsible and reckless handling of the situation. It is my candid suggested solution that is aimed at a yearly canker, that this time round, whisked the breath out of hard working fellow countrymen and women in untimely and horrendous manner.

My President, I hope you found this letter worth reading. If my suggestion does not make sense however, I beg of you to reconsider the handling of a perennial problem not as an accident. If nothing at all, I wish to say, the budget is an issue every year on our calendar just as the raining season. I therefore beseech your outfit to have a portion of our yearly budget apportioned to manage our normal yearly unfortunate event.

May I suggest humbly that, this suggestion of mine must not be perused and scrutinized from budgetary, financial and investment perspectives. I deemed such actions as wasteful, because the value of loss of lives, properties plus the Ȼ60 million dished out this time, may suffer syndrome of dwarfism against the real benefits to be raked in should my suggestion be taken and implemented.

My suggestion also is not meant to dismiss long term plans to solve the yearly normal problem of flooding that has been with us for quite a long time. Harnessing the flood through construction of interconnected draining system to have a dam which is a multi-billion dollar project will not be a bad idea at all. It will produce electrical power generation or irrigation, but for its capital intensive and long term nature.

Whiles we wait to beg for funds for such a wonderful long term and capital multi- billion projects, I sincerely ask you to implement my suggestion as a short-midterm measure. You may be glad after all to learn that, an effective implementation of it may reveal the need not to undertake the multi-billion projects we foresaw to be the panacea of the problem. I am readily available to offer my conceptions about how this could be correctly implemented.

I will consider the implementation of my suggestion a great opportunity to honor the memory of the true and real victims of the over 200 beloved lives, who never lived to benefit from the Ȼ60 million, yet it was meant for them. Mr. President, help me say fellow countrymen and women, rest in perfect peace!