The iconic Kaizer Flats housing more than 400 people are expected to be pulled down by the Tema Development Corporation Thursday morning.

The TDC is set to demolish four of the multi-storey flats that have developed structural defects and have now become a potential hazard.

Engineers  declared Blocks 407, 408, 410 and 415 in the building complex unsafe for human habitation due to their dilapidated nature.

In all 187 residents, made up of 53 children and 134 adults, were to vacate the flats by the 1st February 2018 according to a court order.

The Greater Regional Director of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) says there is the need to deal with the situation before a major disaster hits the country.

 Archibald Cobbina said, “as a nation, we need to wake up to certain realities. We shouldn’t be a nation that would wait for disasters to happen before we see what could be done to help the situations.”

He said this during a familiarisation tour of four blocks of the Kaizer Flats in Tema Community 4.

Mr. Cobbina said it was essential that something was done to protect the lives of the people who lived in the buildings, adding that “almost all the buildings in the Kaizer Flats have serious cracks; all the irons are showing; they are all rusty, and it is not good for human habitation.”

He said, “We will not throw people out on the streets. We have what we call safe havens so that those who genuinely may not have made alternative arrangements may have places to go to.  We have sent people around to look at places nearby for them to settle for a couple of days.”

The Presidential Spokesperson on Infrastructure, Mr Richard Asante Yeboah, observed the Kaizer Flats were a disaster waiting to happen.

“These are death traps; these are situations which if not curbed now would make us lose a good number of people,” he said.

He added that “There have been other disasters we saw and allowed to happen, but this government is determined to prevent such things from occurring.”

The Assembly Member for Horticulture Electoral Area, which houses the Kaizer Flats,  Mr Richard Anning, observed that there were residents who did not know where they were moving to, with some not even having means of transport so “any assistance they could give us to move peacefully before the Thursday will be appreciated.”

He said there were other blocks which were not different from the four condemned, and therefore suspected that the TDC a had a hidden motive for the action.

 “I am begging them, we have 401 to 415 flats. If you look at the twin flats, for instance, they have one staircase and one is considered dangerous and the other declared safe. If one is demolished, how will people on the other flat get to their rooms? So the earlier they made their plans known to us, the better.”

He asked TDC to go through the records to determine those who did not benefit from the compensation packages that was paid some years ago and compensate them as they have agreed to vacate the facilities.

Mr Isaac Lomotey, the Spokesperson for the affected residents, indicated that about 80 percent of them did not have places to go to “but they would move out of their rooms, maybe they might find spaces around the flats to rest their tired bodies.”

Criticising the inability of the authorities to provide alternative accommodations for them, he said, “They should treat all persons equally, for we are all Ghanaians. If you want to take over our facility, you should look for alternatives for us.”