The Town and Country Planning Department of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) should take all the blame for the perennial flooding of the capital, Prof Opuni Asiamah, a former Provost of the College of Architecture and Planning (CAP) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has said.
Prof Opuni Asiamah said though the country has several regulations regarding construction of buildings, “no one cares” to enforce them.
The planning lecturer made these observations in an interview on Accra100.5FM’s morning show, Ghana Yensom, on Friday June 10, following a long and massive downpour that left most parts of the city submerged the previous day.
He told Chief Jerry Forson on the show: “For me, I will heap all the blame on Town [and Country] Planning [Department] because it is the first line institution, which should ensure that all these things work, but they are not doing what they are supposed to be doing”.
According to him, the department, for example, has a Development and Control Unit, whose primary role is to ensure that, among other things, buildings being put up by developers are sited according to plan. However, it has often complained of being too resource-starved to do its work.
He added that engineers of the AMA Building Inspectorate Unit, whose responsibilities include going round various localities to check if new buildings being put up have permits, are situated appropriately, and are being constructed with the right materials, have also abandoned their work, for which individual developers do what they like, erecting structures in waterways, which often aggravate flooding after rains.
“These are all people the taxpayer is paying. But we wake up every day not knowing what work they do. We have been overwhelmed,” he noted.
“So, our institutions must get up and start working. And Town [and Country] Planning particularly, I don’t think they are doing well. Because in all this, they draw the plans [for the city] and they have a Development Control Unit we believe should be able to work.
“Our attitude to building is completely wrong. We always want the whip cracked before we do what is right, and those wielding the whip do not check up again. And that is why we are seeing the problems we are seeing.”
He lamented the attitude of authorities, who predictably emerge after similar disasters to make “long speeches” and “long promises” they very well know they have no intention of honouring, only for the deluge to happen again a year later.
Prof Asiamah called on the Works, Housing, and Water Resources Ministry to ensure that bodies overseeing the roles of the underperforming agencies do their work well.
“We should get our institutions to work and the Ministry of [Water Resources], Works and Housing should be up and doing. The Minister should get up and ensure that all these institutions work because it is a hierarchy.”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com/100.5fm
