The Accra floods, what happened before the rains?

E. Ablorh-Odjidja

June 05, 2015

Before the handwringing, the photo ops and the dead bodies show up, we must ask what exactly happened before the rains.

Asking is not being a heartless slob. But to see how our leaders can rush to the horrific flood scene that killed 150 citizens to utter empty sympathies and not ask the question will amaze even the callous.

The recent flood was a sequel, a perennial event that happened every rainy season.

The fire this time was another wrinkle to the reccuring tragedy. But that devastating fire couldn’have happened without the flood.

Flooding is not a special event.  Tropical rain in Ghana is heavy and different than the ones usually experienced in Europe and North America.

When it rains in Ghana, it floods. Trees get uprooted. Houses get damaged and waterways are cleared of human encroachments.

But after the rains, what nature has destroyed would be brought back and staged for the next event.  Except for the lives that are lost.

The troubling part is that it is always the same areas in Accra that get hammered by the floods every year. The major flood-prone areas like Kwame Nkrumah Circle would always be seriously underwater after the heavy rains.

And we know why. The nearby Korle Lagoon, the natural containment destination for run-offs, is always choked with silt before the first rains arrive.

The lagoon, a depression that should be several feet below sea level, is today at the same ground level as the surface of the surrounding areas.

Is this an intractable problem because we don't know what to do?  On the contrary, we do. But I am inclined to think that the existential condition that creates this perennial flooding is the essence of something big. That big thing is not nature. It is us.

So, what happened before the flood? Did we develop collective amnesia about the rains and the time of the season?

Other countries in different weather zones have problems with the seasons.  It snows in some of the countries.  But long before the season changes, these countries would have budget sand equipment ready to remove the snow and salt the roadways to make them passable.

Most of the time the roads are made safe.  And human lives are spared, even in some of the most extreme conditions.

The story is different between us and our rainy seasons.

You would think that every year, a few months before the rains, perhaps a couple of months earlier, we would start dredging the Korle Lagoon to make it ready and deep enough to receive the run-off.

But this never happens.  A simple matter of dredging that our local civil engineers ought to be able to undertake.

But after the disaster happens, there is always a sudden awareness.

President Mahama, at the scene of the tragedy mentioned, immediately offered the amount of $14 million to combat the flood.  But where was this money the year before and the one preceding it?

Well, why not budget a fraction of the amount, every year, for dredging of the Korle Lagoon and the stream ways leading into it.

I once lived in a flood-prone area at a section of Osu called the Regal Estates.

There was a big drain that ran at the back of our homes.  When the rains came, and the drains got heavy with debris and water, every household got hit by the flood, sometimes to a level of a foot or two deep.

Every room in the area, including bedrooms and kitchens, would be filled with water.  And after the water receded the rooms were left with thick mud and silt.

Then something happened in the early 70s.  The big drain was widened and deepened.  The sides were fortified with concrete and now the floodwater could speed its way to the sea without pause.

Earlier, just about 1965, the dredging on the Korle Lagoon started in earnest.  The idea was to turn the lagoon into a modern recreational area.  

And a miracle happened soon after the dredgers were brought on the lagoon and they started working.  The dredging had a marvelous impact on flooding in the area, including the beautification of the lagoon.

The flooding disappeared and the mosquito population was drastically reduced. And the people around the lagoon area were made healthy and happy.

Then there was the 1966 coup and the dredgers on the lagoon were removed. The Chinese operators were quickly removed from the country because they were deemed security risks.

Soon after, the degradation of the Korle Lagoon renewed ityself.  And subsequently the flooding started again.

We have no power to stop the rains.  Even if we did, we would still need the water. But is it not humanly possible to keep our waterways clear, to harvest the rains, run channels that would keep the downpour and the run-offs in underground wells for consumption?

There must be a lesson in the flood and the flash fire that took so many lives on Wednesday, June 03, 2015. We must be told this lesson, which would always translate to governmental neglect.

For those members of the public who out of ignorance clog our waterways and befoul the drainage systems, it is our civic duty to teach them how to keep their surroundings clean.

And for the one person who probably threw a smoldering cigarette butt into the floodwater near the petroleum station, he should be blamed for the criminal act.  His act ended up killing many people.

We do this and we are likely to save lives in the future.  The "human faces" we are so eager to please now after the floods and the dead with the preening for votes, will be more grateful if we spared them from future disasters of this kind.

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, June 05, 2015.

Permission to publish: Please feel free to publish or reproduce, with credits, unedited. If posted at a website, email a copy of the web page to publisher@ghanadot.com. Or don't publish at all.