June 3, 2016, was described by Ghanaians as Black Wednesday while others called it an unimaginable tragic incident in Ghana's history.

Allow me to recount what happened, a few hours before the unfortunate incident, Accra witnessed a downpour which was seen as normal rainfall as we had just entered the peak of the annual rainy season. It never occurred to anyone that, it was going to be a forceful combination of flood and fire.

Accra has become one of the flood-prone cities in Ghana with its resultant fatalities but the 2015 occurrence was extremely unimaginable.

After hours of the downpour, some areas with poor drainage including Odawna were severely flooded.

The situation compelled people passing through the Kwame Nkrumah Circle to take shelter at a Goil Filling station near the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) Tower and its environs though the flood which had already reached an alarming waist level started carrying people away.

All of sudden, oil from the nearby Goil Filling Station was an all over the flood water. Then, there was an explosion at the filling station which spread across the already flooded houses closer to the fuel station which claimed over 150 lives, maimed hundreds of people and destroyed properties running into several millions of cedis.

The situation was blamed on choked gutters including the main Odaw drain that connects water into the sea.

After the tragic incident, the Mayor of Accra Metropolitan Authority (AMA), Dr Alfred Okoe Vanderpuje promised to desilt all choked gutters in the metropolis to prevent any of such disasters.

A year on, a commemoration of the event also seeks to solemnly reflect on preventive measures put in place and compensation for the victims and their families.

Celebrated under the theme: Never Again it should have reminded government and residents as a whole to embrace environmental awareness. Unfortunately, a tour of the community during the commemoration revealed choked gutters and unsanitary conditions that can cause another tragedy.

This is an indication that lessons have not been learnt from the tragic incident.

City authorities have still not fulfilled their promise while the residents have not made any conscious effort to counter future eventualities, even the National Sanitation Exercise could not bring the expected environmental awareness to the community.

Odaw river at an alarming level

Francisca Marfo lost her husband in the tragic incident when she was 3 months old pregnant

 

This occured some months after the incident

One of the victims in grief

the exploded Goil Fuel station

Some family members mourning 

Choked gutters