Yesterday, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo unveiled four dredging machines for Dredge Masters Limited at Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region to help address flooding in the area.
Ordinarily, a minister could have easily done the unveiling, hence the Ghanaian Times believes that for the President himself to go and unveil the machines is an expression of his concern about flooding and its devastation in the country, particularly in the Greater Accra Region.
It was, therefore, natural that the President condemned acts that cause flooding, especially indiscriminate dumping of refuse in drains and building houses and other structures on waterways.
President Akufo-Addo said since 2017, his administration had spent GH¢450 million in major flood-prone areas in Accra on flood-control projects such as dredging the Odaw drainage channel to clear debris and silt from it to ensure free flow of water in it.
He said some drains had been constructed, excavated, rechannelled or maintained across the country, as part of efforts to reduce the perennial flooding, though he admitted that more needed to be done to deal with the situation permanently, in view of recent flooding events in Accra.
It is clear that the President is frustrated that in spite of these efforts flooding and its devastation rather keep increasing.
In the circumstances, he has asked "unpatriotic citizens" to put an end to throwing refuse into drains or building on waterways and directed the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to immediately demolish all buildings on waterways to prevent flooding during rainy seasons.
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The MMDAs are also ordered to ensure developers' strict adherence to the planning laws of the country and sanction staff members who have issued permits for structures to be built on waterways to serve as a deterrent to others who seek to engage in such acts.
The President assures the public that "to ensure these directives are strictly complied with, I have established a monitoring unit at Jubilee House that will be reporting directly to me on the progress of the implementation of these measures."
The Ghanaian Times has been consistent in expressing worry about the perennial flooding in the country and castigating state organisations, particularly MMDAs, the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and the Planning and Development Department, formerly Town and Country Development Planning Office.
The paper has always accused them of sleeping on the job and it will stand by this position until a change for the better is seen, and this is the time, seeing that the President wants his people to have sound sleep when it rains.
The talk of the citizens having a role to play in fixing the flooding problem has become mundane because the unpatriotic citizens consider it one of the everyday statements that carry no weight because the law would not be applied or public officials would collect bribe and let offenders off the hook.
The Ghanaian Times wishes that President Akufo-Addo would continue to be 'wild' in this matter and hold all the relevant public officials, including the sector minister and his deputy to account if they fail to implement his directive and subsequent ones meant to fix the flooding permanently.
