The annual ritual of floods and destruction of life and property in Accra during the rainy season is here. What else do we expect in a country that operates no Town and Country Planning policies and regulations? The absolute lawlessness in the development programmes especially in Accra testifies to the lack of planning controls.
The irony of it all is that none of the institutions responsible for planning, planning controls and the monitoring of these processes, i.e. city authorities, Town and Country Planning Department and Environmental Protection Agency, appear bothered, or are unable to figure out and provide any clues. With the apparent nonchalant attitude of the professionals in the area, the worst is perhaps yet to come.
Let us see how one country has solved a similar problem.
Curitiba the capital of Parana State in southern Brazil had persistent flooding that plagued the city centre during 1950s and early 1960s. Construction of houses and other structures along the banks of streams and rivers in the city exacerbated the problem, just as it is in Accra.
Beginning in 1966 the city planning authorities set aside strips of land for drainage and put certain low-lying areas off limits for buildings.
In 1975 stringent planning legislations were enacted to protect the remaining natural drainage systems. To make use of these areas and not to leave them fallow for possible encroachment, as it always happens in this country, Curitiba turned many riverbanks into parks, building artificial lakes to contain floodwaters (see picture).
In Accra low-lying areas along some streams, which are prone to perennial flooding and which in the case of Curitiba was declared off limits to buildings are fully built up. Places like Alajo, Dzorwulu, Avenor, south industrial area, which are flood prone areas, are fully built up.
On the 5th of July 1995 the Daily Graphic, commenting on the floods which occurred in Accra as a result of a heavy downpour (about 150mm in 5 hours) a day before had this to say: "The floods in Accra have become a ritual. In July 1965, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah (the then President) visited flood victims at Alajo. Again in 1975, the late military ruler, General I.K. Acheampong also visited flood victims at the railway quarters. In 1979 another military ruler Flt Lt. J.J Rawlings, visited flood victims at Alajo, and in July 4 1995, it happened again." In the previous and intervening years these areas in Accra had experienced similar floods to greater or lesser deqrees which have resulted in considerable damage to life and property. Yet the city and the planning authorities have been looking on rather helplessly unable to come out with any blue print akin to the Curitiba plan, to tackle the problem.
I have, in a previous article written about two parallel projects in Accra, at least one of which should have incorporated flood control in its design. The Accra waste project and the Korle Lagoon Ecological Restoration Project costing a total of about US$100 million. The Accra waste project was constructed rather stealthily and looks unnecessary and superfluous as explained in the article (The Accra Mail 31/5/2001). The implementers of the Korle Lagoon Ecological Restoration Project appear to be more interested in ecological restoration than flood control. And why was the project executed half way before it was brought to the public domain for discussion?
Apart from the doubts being expressed about the project's effectiveness in restoring the ecology in the lagoon, the canal being constructed for the streams and main drains appears not to have the capacity to contain any appreciable amount of floodwaters. This has been demonstrated clearly by this year's rains.
With the breakdown of institutions in the area of planning and planning controls, a few technical personnel and their political allies have hijacked the collapsed planning institutions and are ramming down spurious projects on the country at considerable cost to the nation. The lackadaisical attitude of the planning institutions in the country must be looked at seriously, for the path we are threading can only lead to disaster.
The solution to the persistent flooding in Accra, I am sure would eventually lie in the demolition of several buildings and structures in flood prone areas - perhaps in the Alajo area to give way to the construction of large artificial lakes to contain floodwaters. But first and foremost the institutions for planning and planning controls must be overhauled to take charge of this assignment, for the institutions we have at the moment cannot even be considered as a shadow of anything real. Please do not go far to verify this; just cross over to our immediate neighbours, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Togo to see how these institutions work.
