Houses are supposed to be built on foundations with pillars of stability but the ones at the Weija Ridge in Accra are built on sedimentary rocks held together by clay waiting to be washed away in a potential mudslide.

The area is home to thousands, including Black Stars captain Asamoah Gyan, all of whom are living normal lives in an area deemed to be abnormal at least for humans.

The call for an immediate evacuation of persons living on the Ridge is heightening as fears of a major disaster looms.

This time, it is the Ranking member on the Environment, Science and Technology Committee of Parliament Terlabi Ebenezer Okletey who is demanding action from duty bearers.

Speaking to Joy News on Midday, Monday, the MP said the country must not wait for the Sierra Leone disaster to happen in Ghana before they wake up from their slumber.

The Sugar loaf community in the Sierra Leonean capital was until 2017 home to thousands of people who turned deaf ears to calls for their evacuation. They lived in towers on a cliff and enjoyed the cool windy breeze each day until the night of August 14, 2017.

An amalgamation of floods and mudslide washed away houses that night and carried with it precious human lives.

Over 400 people died in the disaster with over 600 others declared missing.

According to Terlabi Ebenezer Okletey, the Weija Ridge situation is just as dire and a disaster, equal or worse in comparison to that of Sugar loaf is not far off if nothing is done about it.

As if the potential for floods and mudslide is no danger enough, the Weija Ridge is prone to earthquakes with several reports and warning by the National Disaster Management Organisation, (NADMO), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Weija is a small town and the capital of Ga South Municipal District. The entire District has a total population of some 411,000. It is barely 30 minutes’ drive from Accra.  

Even though there are low lying areas in the District, the ridge areas appear to be the most problematic.

Terlabi Ebenezer Okletey, blamed the current occupation of the disaster zone to what he said was the “uncoordinated nature of development.”

“Each ministry does its own thing,” he complained and chided officials of the Electricity and Water Companies of Ghana for extending utility services to areas that have been described by EPA and NADMO as uninhabitable.

“The people must be evacuated,” he said, adding, “we must not wait for what happened in Sierra Leone to happen in Ghana.