Editorial: Are we learning from our mishaps?

A little over two years ago, a major fire outbreak razed down stores and offices at Kantamanto in Accra in a disaster that affected a good number of people rendering some jobless.

Apart from the pain and agony that the disaster engendered, national resources were utilised in providing some relief to those who were affected.

The city authorities pledged that the needed steps would be taken to ensure that the circumstances that led to the fire outbreak were addressed so that a disaster of that nature would not repeat itself.

Two years after, it is heart-warming to note that Kantamanto has resurrected from the ashes but paradoxically, the return of Kantamanto has come with some appreciable level of apprehension.

The apprehension stems from the fact that nothing has changed. The conditions that led to the fire outbreak remain the same in the rebirth of Kantamanto.

Without doubt, no individual can be prevented from earning a decent livelihood which is a basic human right.

But the tenets of the same human rights call for such persons to do so in an environment that poses no threat to their lives.

That is why the Daily Graphic finds it worrying that no steps have been taken by the city authorities to see to it that the right things are done in order to forestall any such disaster in the future.

It has become the norm that when people start illegal development in any part of the country, those whose responsibility it is to check such projects tend to turn a blind eye to them until disaster strikes.

When it does, the repercussions for scarce national resources affect all of us even though the majority of the people may not have contributed in any way to the disaster.

It is high time our city authorities became proactive in preventing situations that could later lead to undesirable ends.

Following the recent flooding that led to loss of lives and destruction of properties, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) took a decisive step in demolishing all the structures that stood on water courses, especially at Sodom and Gomorrah.

The space created thereafter remains fallow and awaiting the necessary action that will ensure that the squatters do not return.

We are patiently waiting to see the beginning of such actions that will pre-empt the return of the squatters and hope that the same scenario that has played out in the Kantamanto case will not apply to Sodom and Gomorrah and other areas.

The Daily Graphic believes in the old adage that “a stitch in time saves nine” and thus the tendency for us as a nation to be reactionary must give way to a renewed attitude where potential threats are addressed with the necessary promptness they deserve.