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2 years after June 3, the lessons have not been learned
The June 3 flood and fire disaster in 2015 was the single largest loss of Ghanaian lives to a disaster since independence.
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A government committee set up after the disaster to determine the cause and suggest recommendations put the death toll at 150 people with an estimated equal number suffering various degrees of injury.
However, despite the scale of the tragedy that engulfed this country, very little has been done by way of measures to ensure that such a thing either does not happen ever again or when it happens, there would be appropriate response from emergency services to mitigate its effects.
The floods
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It has become clear that not much has changed since the disaster. Many parts of Accra including the epicentre of this disaster, the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, and indeed the entire country are submerged when it rains.
The dredging of major drains in Accra do not appear to have done much as while that is ongoing residents along the drains and further upfield continue on their indiscriminate disposal of waste especially plastics. A proposed ban on plastic that was announced remains what is was, proposed.
It is unclear if the new government under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will carry on with this proposition. Waste collection in the city has still not improved with heaps of rubbish swept from the streets lying by the sides of major roads unattended to for days, sometimes even weeks.
With these conditions, very few will actually be surprised if the news media reports of flooding in many parts of the city during this year’s rainy season.
Emergency services
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The third of June disaster did not only show lapses in our drainage system. Our emergency services were put to the ultimate test. To put it mildly, right from the fire service to the ambulance service, they didn’t rise to the occasion. Two years on, the operation deficits have not improved. In a recent fire at the popular Coconut Grove Regency Hotel in Accra, it was reported that the fire service had run of water in their tenders and some of their tenders even arrived at the scene empty.
This is despite the fact that the headquarters of the service and the adjoining fire station are only about two minutes away from the hotel. Fire hydrants placed at vantage points across the city have also either been built on by city dwellers or do not have water being pumped into them by the Ghana Water Company. Some unscrupulous people also siphon the water in the hydrant for their personal use.
The service is very under resourced and despite demands for more equipment and resources, it is evident that not much has been done to respond to these pleas, that’s if something has even been done.
The report by the government committee may not have been released to the public and so it difficult to ascertain what recommendations were made to following the disaster. However, as people roam and go about their business within the city, it is evident that lesson have not been learned from the night the spirit of our great city drowned and burned.
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