Affirmatively Disruptive: Rain, rain, go away!

It is July 1995. Accra has experienced its heaviest rains since 1936, recording 258 mm of rainfall with an intensity of 64mm in 12 minutes, lasting over five hours.

Seventeen lives are lost. Industrial and commercial properties are severely damaged. Water supply, telephone, electricity, roads and railway services are all disrupted, bringing activities in the capital to a halt.
Jerry Rawlings is Ghana’s President.

With a high-powered delegation in tow, he tours disaster sites, commiserating with victims and pledging state support. The images are raw and vivid. Television cameras show the charismatic former military leader trudging through the flood water in boots, the anguish on his face discernible. Metropolitan authorities and the National Disaster Management Organisation announce the supply of mattresses and food to displaced persons.
Never again. Never again. Never again, all the leaders say. We shall identify and rout out the root causes of this perennial debacle. We shall build bigger storm drains, clear the old ones, remove all and we mean all structures on watercourses, we shall refrain from giving permits for buildings to be built on known watercourses, we will repent and take personal responsibility for keeping our drains clean.

Kwaku Sakyi-Addo is a celebrated Ghanaian journalist. For a variety of reasons, the preceding paragraph never impressed him. As it turned out, Sakyi-Addo would begin hosting his trail-blazing Friday morning radio show, Front Page, in 1997.

In the ensuing years, he discussed Accra’s floods from countless multiple perspectives. Though neither a flood nor engineering expert, Sakyi-Addo now knew both peak flood seasons (May-June and September-October), knew what the direct and remote causes of Accra’s floods were, knew what experts on his show eloquently claimed were the technical solutions to the flood challenge. He also knew that nothing would actually be done after the storm settled each year!

What Sakyi-Addo did not know, thankfully hidden from him by God, was that his show on Accra’s floods in 1997 will not be his last. For 10 years after that, he will host a show on Accra’s floods every year! After 10 years, two Presidents, and unrepentant annual floods in Ghana’s capital, he gave up, succumbing to shall we say – climate change! Of course, it was nothing quite as dramatic, but well …

Another flood
It is October 2011. Accra recorded rainfall of 156mm in two days. But although this volume was within normal range, its distribution was not, triggering a flooding disaster.
At the time, reference was made to a 2007 Ghana Country Environmental Assessment report by the World Bank which “estimated that only 40 per cent of urban residents in Accra were served by solid waste collection services in 2004”.

Solutions
Suggested long-term solutions included improving the solid waste management system, constructing more and improved drains, and planning infrastructural/settlement development in ways that do not block the natural watercourses, developing a credible early warning system for improved contingency planning and evacuation, embedded within a flood management system from national to local levels, inter alia.

Elusive solution
Also, the UN Habitat (2011) tried to predict which drainage channels would overflow given a certain amount of rainfall, and clearly linked exposure to flooding of the population to areas with a high slum index.
A comprehensive solution encompassing careful planning, aligned resources, addressing the root causes fuelling the creation of vulnerable populations and strong political leadership were all advocated at the time. Four years later, the solutions still elude us.

More serious disaster strikes
It is June 2015. The ‘simple’ floods that we have been playing with for 20 years are suddenly compounded by a fuel station explosion in Accra, resulting in the death of hundreds of people.
As it turns out, the flood destroyed underground fuel containers etc. Petrol started leaking. The leaking petrol mixed with flood water and was floating on the surface of the water into far and distant places. Somebody lit a fire many many miles away.

This fire tracked back to the petrol station where cars had parked and people had gathered for shelter from the unrelenting rain. Residential property was also located on top of the fuel station with people. One big explosion. Hundreds dead!

Serious commitment?
As it was in 1995, so shall it be in 2015. Cars overturned in drains. SUVs submerged completely or almost completely in showrooms. People drowned. Walls broke. Houses flooded. Drains choked. Bad power outages worsened. Never again. Never again. Never again, all the leaders repeat their 1995 words. We shall identify and rout out the root causes of this perennial debacle.

We shall build bigger storm drains, clear the old ones, remove all and we mean all structures on watercourses, we shall refrain from giving permits for buildings to be built on known watercourses, we will repent and take personal responsibility for keeping our drains clean. Déjà vu! Déjà vu! Déjà vu!

It is June 2015. Have words become deeds or do we continue to lament failed systems delivering their expected outcomes? Are we implementing solutions beyond the divisive pettiness of partisan politics? Are individuals also taking responsibility for their own actions? Is there demonstrable leadership – personal, technical, political!
Predicting impending doom, having powers to avert same, but refusing to budge until engulfed by disaster evokes biblical echoes – the prudent man sees the evil and hides himself, but the naïve go on and are punished for it. (Proverbs 22:3). In 2016, we will know where we truly belong – prudent or naive!

Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey
www.sodzisodzi.com
sodzi_tettey@hotmail.com
4th June, 2015