Yes! I fear the outbreak of an epidemic even before the floods find their way through homes, workplaces, under bridges and over roads and rails till they unleash their accumulated shingles into the sea.
Take a look around your environment, the streets, market places and worse of all the huge undeveloped drains! It looks worse than scary to me. The Ghana Meteorological Agency warns or terrible conditions ahead and that scare me to the hilt!
It is totally unacceptable at this moment of grief for anyone to politicize the havoc that the rains and the floods have visited on many citizens within and outside the capital whereas we should be thinking through the next stage of managing this disaster, the worst in many years.
We are paying heavily for the systemic failure on the side of planning, supervision and the respect for our laws as regards building on ramsar sites and on unapproved designations.
We are also paying a huge prize for the indiscipline on the part of many of property owners and contractors acquire, develop and build all manner of structures anywhere and anyhow without any recourse to considerations of the nature of the land, topography, soil structure, architectural design, environmental threats among others.
While the Ghana Navy and the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) is battling with providing bedspreads, tents, food and clothing to many displaced persons, the worst might hit us unannounced, in the event of a possible epidemic outbreak especially in the unplanned and haphazardly laid out areas of Ashaiman, Nima, Agbogbloshie,and Aladjo.
An observation I have made around the capital is that garbage is consistently amassing on may streets and market places, probably due to the inability of the refuse collection trucks to collect the garbage for disposal at the land filled sites as many of the roads linking the sites have either been flooded or completely rendered unmotorable.
The quantum of the garbage would surely multiply in coming days if the rains do not cease falling and the floods cease swelling any time soon.
This is bad news for us especially to those living in flood-prone areas. The garbage is likely to be washed into the drains and the gutters by the rains and carried across long distances and dumped in unknown areas thus worsening the already hydra-headed sanitation problems.
Worst still would be the possibility of some unrecovered and decomposing bodies, trapped under some bridges and drains, somewhere along the channel of the flood. The mess, the stench, the decomposing and fermentation of the garbage all put together coupled with destruction of many Kumasi Ventilated Improved Pit latrines (KVIPs) and the flooding of septic tanks (man holes) would break forth a cholera epidemic that would demand millions of Ghana cedis to deal with.
Already we have a growing factor of the H1N1 outbreak on our hands and any outbreak of cholera in the ensuing weeks would either stretch our health facilities or collapse them altogether.
Dr. Benjamin Kumbour, Minister of Health together with the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, must get themselves ready to deal with this angle of the flood as attention seem to be more focused on the politics of the rains and the distribution of relief and the mourning of the dead in some homes and communities.
This is not the time to haggle over which house should be demolished or what member of Parliament is frustrating the work of a District Assembly but we must shift gear into making immediate arrangements to protect the larger public against any health hazard the floods and the terrible excesses it is likely to pose to the wider public health.
I fear for the market women in and around the Pedestrian Shopping Mall at Odawna near the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, as the entire environment stinks and the mess could be worsened by the fury of the floods.
The Ministry of Information and Health must commence an intensive education campaign (just as they are doing with the H1N1 virus) to immediately sensitize citizens on the likely health threats that the floods are likely to pose as many man-holes, bucket latrines, KVIPs and refuse dumps have either been washed away or completely dissolved in the rushing waters of the flood.
Let us move into action, for the clock ticks onto a looming catastrophe!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
The Rawlingses & The Kufuors Any roles to support the development agenda of the nation?
By Felix Mawulolo Amegashie
President Barack H. Obama has come and gone but he left in his wake memories that will forever linger with this generation until perhaps he comes back some day to refresh us.
I must congratulate the Atta Mills-led government for the very simple and down-to-earth manner in which activities celebrating Obama’s historic visit to Ghana were handled in the face of obvious financial challenges confronting the country.
Equally deserving of commendation is the open arms with which President John Evans Mills embraced his political opponents including those who rated him undeserving of the office of president, to the tarmac of the Kotoka International Airport to welcome the visiting US President.
This is what I call leadership: making the best of relationships and resources for the common good of the people. President Mills did not submerge the opposition but rallied them around his good self in branding Ghana as an “adolescent democracy” in the eyes of the world.
It is only in Ghana that competitors in a bitter election can quickly recover from their age old rivalries and come together for a common purpose on a memorable day as that of the visit of Barack Obama.
We all deserve credit and I cannot agree more with President Obama when he stressed that “perhaps the minority deserves much commendation as the majority”.
“Domestication”
The breakfast meeting between Obama, the President and the two ex-presidents was the next attraction to the whole programme. There was life and humour amidst serious talk at that breakfast meeting that saw Nana Konadu Rawlings and Theresa Kufuor with their respective sweethearts, together on the same platform after a long period of unhealthy exchanges of cross-fire between the two former first gentlemen of the land.
President Obama, the social-democrat that he is, was more than delighted to eat with the President and the two ex-presidents the available ration and did not visit the loo as many had feared he might! All these tastes of the “domestication” of the visit added serious colour, culture and an African courtesy to the entire programme. This is indeed a feather in the cap of Ghana’s protocol department.
“Bad blood”
Soon after breakfast, Radio Gold and TV3 granted interviews to the two ex-Presidents. While Jerry Rawlings promised that the perceived “bad blood” between himself and John Kufuor would be dealt with, John Kufuor quickly riposted that there was no “bad blood” between the two of them. Jerry Rawlings and John Kufuor might not be enemies but they share different political ideologies and that makes them political opponents.
We may have our internal differences as individuals and sympathizers of different political parties, but when it comes to forging a common tie to project the image of Ghana beyond our borders, it is imperative for the government to do all that can be done to put the two gentlemen on the forefront.
Tasking them with specific roles to play on behalf of government in order to harness their contribution to the common good of the nation will not be too little too late.
To President Mills who is held in high esteem by the international community for his commitment to the rule of law and, freedom of speech, multi-party democracy and his readiness to combat corruption, drug-trafficking and ostentatious lifestyle as a sitting head of state, Obama’s visit is a real exercise to legitimize his office and Ghana’s “adolescent democratic” credentials of Ghana.
Konadu and Theresa
Mrs. Konadu Rawlings and Mrs. Theresa Kufuor might not be friends but in times as these when we need each of them to play one role or the other to support the development agenda of the nation, appointing the former first ladies as ambassadors of one government initiative or the other under the Mills administration will be very rewarding and a major plus to our “adolescent democracy” in order to attract major and minor policy advantages from all over the world so that we can perpetually remain on top as the beacon of democratic hope to a continent bedeviled with undemocratic regimes, crime, hunger, wars and diseases.
A move in this direction from the President, assures any sitting president that upon a peaceful transition and handing-over, one does not only retire, sit at home on a pension and tell mythical tales to his grandchildren but one is equally useful and respected as an ex-president to partake in the activities of the successive government. This will discourage the temptation of doing all one could, fair or foul, to perpetrate his party in office.
God Bless Our Homeland Ghana!
P/S: this article was originally published in July 2009.
(Edited: by Alhaji Haruna Atta, Editor of The Accra Daily Mail Newspaper)
http://www.modernghana.com/news/227576/160/can-mrs-rawlings-and-mrs-kufuor-ever-be-friends.html
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=165362
President Barack H. Obama has come and gone but he left in his wake memories that will forever linger with this generation until perhaps he comes back some day to refresh us.
I must congratulate the Atta Mills-led government for the very simple and down-to-earth manner in which activities celebrating Obama’s historic visit to Ghana were handled in the face of obvious financial challenges confronting the country.
Equally deserving of commendation is the open arms with which President John Evans Mills embraced his political opponents including those who rated him undeserving of the office of president, to the tarmac of the Kotoka International Airport to welcome the visiting US President.
This is what I call leadership: making the best of relationships and resources for the common good of the people. President Mills did not submerge the opposition but rallied them around his good self in branding Ghana as an “adolescent democracy” in the eyes of the world.
It is only in Ghana that competitors in a bitter election can quickly recover from their age old rivalries and come together for a common purpose on a memorable day as that of the visit of Barack Obama.
We all deserve credit and I cannot agree more with President Obama when he stressed that “perhaps the minority deserves much commendation as the majority”.
“Domestication”
The breakfast meeting between Obama, the President and the two ex-presidents was the next attraction to the whole programme. There was life and humour amidst serious talk at that breakfast meeting that saw Nana Konadu Rawlings and Theresa Kufuor with their respective sweethearts, together on the same platform after a long period of unhealthy exchanges of cross-fire between the two former first gentlemen of the land.
President Obama, the social-democrat that he is, was more than delighted to eat with the President and the two ex-presidents the available ration and did not visit the loo as many had feared he might! All these tastes of the “domestication” of the visit added serious colour, culture and an African courtesy to the entire programme. This is indeed a feather in the cap of Ghana’s protocol department.
“Bad blood”
Soon after breakfast, Radio Gold and TV3 granted interviews to the two ex-Presidents. While Jerry Rawlings promised that the perceived “bad blood” between himself and John Kufuor would be dealt with, John Kufuor quickly riposted that there was no “bad blood” between the two of them. Jerry Rawlings and John Kufuor might not be enemies but they share different political ideologies and that makes them political opponents.
We may have our internal differences as individuals and sympathizers of different political parties, but when it comes to forging a common tie to project the image of Ghana beyond our borders, it is imperative for the government to do all that can be done to put the two gentlemen on the forefront.
Tasking them with specific roles to play on behalf of government in order to harness their contribution to the common good of the nation will not be too little too late.
To President Mills who is held in high esteem by the international community for his commitment to the rule of law and, freedom of speech, multi-party democracy and his readiness to combat corruption, drug-trafficking and ostentatious lifestyle as a sitting head of state, Obama’s visit is a real exercise to legitimize his office and Ghana’s “adolescent democratic” credentials of Ghana.
Konadu and Theresa
Mrs. Konadu Rawlings and Mrs. Theresa Kufuor might not be friends but in times as these when we need each of them to play one role or the other to support the development agenda of the nation, appointing the former first ladies as ambassadors of one government initiative or the other under the Mills administration will be very rewarding and a major plus to our “adolescent democracy” in order to attract major and minor policy advantages from all over the world so that we can perpetually remain on top as the beacon of democratic hope to a continent bedeviled with undemocratic regimes, crime, hunger, wars and diseases.
A move in this direction from the President, assures any sitting president that upon a peaceful transition and handing-over, one does not only retire, sit at home on a pension and tell mythical tales to his grandchildren but one is equally useful and respected as an ex-president to partake in the activities of the successive government. This will discourage the temptation of doing all one could, fair or foul, to perpetrate his party in office.
God Bless Our Homeland Ghana!
P/S: this article was originally published in July 2009.
(Edited: by Alhaji Haruna Atta, Editor of The Accra Daily Mail Newspaper)
http://www.modernghana.com/news/227576/160/can-mrs-rawlings-and-mrs-kufuor-ever-be-friends.html
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=165362
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Hannah, Bagbin (Honourables), ”you do not drink tap water, I bet you don’t!
I am getting increasingly impatient at the sheer wickedness of Aqua Vittens Rand Limited, contract managers for the Ghana Water Company Limited. Consumers have complained about the poor services of this company especially in the area of water treatment and distribution but very little has been achieved in improving on their services so far.
Coming on the back of the recent adjustments in utility tariffs and the demand for improved services by many consumers, it is only reasonable that AVRL comes clear about their plans for improving on water treatment, expansion and distribution of clean pipe-borne water to many rural and urban communities who are currently in dire need of good drinking water.
Not many can afford to feed their homes with bottled mineral or sachet water. Even to those who can afford it, it adds to their daily expenses at home and in their workplaces. In many rural communities, wells and boreholes are the only source of good and healthy drinking water, but can same for Aqua Vittens Rand Limited for their services?
I have noticed that pipe borne water has fallen short of everything close to quality and standards. It is irregular in flow, and terribly dirty. Yes, terribly dirty!
Just store a bucket of pipe borne water overnight and take a good look at the water the next morning.
Rolls of dirt and brownish substances are visible to the naked eye which immediately deters any sane consumer from using the water to wash his/her face or to brush his teeth let alone to dare drinking.
Even if you would use it for anything edible, one has to be sure that it was thoroughly boiled to eliminate an obvious danger it might pose a consumer. I shiver to imagine what one would discover if samples are put to laboratory examination.
Consumers are faced with even worse fate as many of these sachet water companies cannot be physically located via registered addresses, let alone offer themselves to the Food and Drugs Board or the Ghana Health Service and the Ghana Standards Board for routine inspection. Same can be said of the so-called herbal clinics and companies bottling all manner of unknown concoctions for public consumption.
While these unscrupulous businessmen and women are cashing in on the silent boycott for the consumption of AVRL managed pipe borne water at home, at work places, in public events, festivals and funerals, the AVRL seems to be indifferent to this lack of public confidence in their product, knowing too well, that they hold an absolute monopoly over public water management, treatment and distribution in Ghana.
If the AVRL had a conscious as manager of an essential commodity like water, they would have shown that commitment and corporate seriousness to avert the sheer wickedness and treachery they have shown their clients thus far.
Many of the communicable diseases are water borne especially via the consumption of untreated water. We are very helpless as it stands now because, it appears the AVRL has gone to bed on their duties and the laws to check those who exploit consumers are either absent or totally useless in protecting the citizenry.
Adding salt to our injuries is a Consumer Protection Agency that is more obsessed with complex issues of advertisements and telephone bills than the basic things that kill the common man on the streets.
Hon Alban Bagbin and Dr. Hannah Bissiw should wake up to this call and go after AVRL to do the right thing and treat us with dignity and respect while ensuring that a legal framework is developed to deal with the proliferation of all manner of sachet water companies who are worsening our environmental and sanitation problems.
What has it benefitted Ghana for a Minister or Deputy Minister to wake up at five (5) in the morning and drive to a radio or TV station to speak grammar on some useless newspaper publications, instead of using those few hours to either have enough rest to enable him meet the day’s challenges or to get to his office deal with some outstanding pressing need hours before scores of visitors and meetings clog his schedule?
Our public officials should desist from going on these media platforms to engage in endless debates and sit in their offices and work for a better Ghana.
We did not vote for them to speak grammar, but to take the timely actions to hasten our development agenda.
I do not remember the last time I drunk pipe borne water and I am not ready to risk my health in consuming the unclean and unhealthy water dripping down our taps.
It is a disgrace that we have sat down to see our citizens boycott the consumption of water, a basic necessity of life, while we run after sachet and bottled mineral water.
Ghana needs us alive to live our dreams.
Hon. Bagbin and Dr. Bissiw, Minister and Deputy for Housing and Water Resources, should not stand aside and watch while our citizens fall victim to preventable waterborne diseases.
Coming on the back of the recent adjustments in utility tariffs and the demand for improved services by many consumers, it is only reasonable that AVRL comes clear about their plans for improving on water treatment, expansion and distribution of clean pipe-borne water to many rural and urban communities who are currently in dire need of good drinking water.
Not many can afford to feed their homes with bottled mineral or sachet water. Even to those who can afford it, it adds to their daily expenses at home and in their workplaces. In many rural communities, wells and boreholes are the only source of good and healthy drinking water, but can same for Aqua Vittens Rand Limited for their services?
I have noticed that pipe borne water has fallen short of everything close to quality and standards. It is irregular in flow, and terribly dirty. Yes, terribly dirty!
Just store a bucket of pipe borne water overnight and take a good look at the water the next morning.
Rolls of dirt and brownish substances are visible to the naked eye which immediately deters any sane consumer from using the water to wash his/her face or to brush his teeth let alone to dare drinking.
Even if you would use it for anything edible, one has to be sure that it was thoroughly boiled to eliminate an obvious danger it might pose a consumer. I shiver to imagine what one would discover if samples are put to laboratory examination.
Consumers are faced with even worse fate as many of these sachet water companies cannot be physically located via registered addresses, let alone offer themselves to the Food and Drugs Board or the Ghana Health Service and the Ghana Standards Board for routine inspection. Same can be said of the so-called herbal clinics and companies bottling all manner of unknown concoctions for public consumption.
While these unscrupulous businessmen and women are cashing in on the silent boycott for the consumption of AVRL managed pipe borne water at home, at work places, in public events, festivals and funerals, the AVRL seems to be indifferent to this lack of public confidence in their product, knowing too well, that they hold an absolute monopoly over public water management, treatment and distribution in Ghana.
If the AVRL had a conscious as manager of an essential commodity like water, they would have shown that commitment and corporate seriousness to avert the sheer wickedness and treachery they have shown their clients thus far.
Many of the communicable diseases are water borne especially via the consumption of untreated water. We are very helpless as it stands now because, it appears the AVRL has gone to bed on their duties and the laws to check those who exploit consumers are either absent or totally useless in protecting the citizenry.
Adding salt to our injuries is a Consumer Protection Agency that is more obsessed with complex issues of advertisements and telephone bills than the basic things that kill the common man on the streets.
Hon Alban Bagbin and Dr. Hannah Bissiw should wake up to this call and go after AVRL to do the right thing and treat us with dignity and respect while ensuring that a legal framework is developed to deal with the proliferation of all manner of sachet water companies who are worsening our environmental and sanitation problems.
What has it benefitted Ghana for a Minister or Deputy Minister to wake up at five (5) in the morning and drive to a radio or TV station to speak grammar on some useless newspaper publications, instead of using those few hours to either have enough rest to enable him meet the day’s challenges or to get to his office deal with some outstanding pressing need hours before scores of visitors and meetings clog his schedule?
Our public officials should desist from going on these media platforms to engage in endless debates and sit in their offices and work for a better Ghana.
We did not vote for them to speak grammar, but to take the timely actions to hasten our development agenda.
I do not remember the last time I drunk pipe borne water and I am not ready to risk my health in consuming the unclean and unhealthy water dripping down our taps.
It is a disgrace that we have sat down to see our citizens boycott the consumption of water, a basic necessity of life, while we run after sachet and bottled mineral water.
Ghana needs us alive to live our dreams.
Hon. Bagbin and Dr. Bissiw, Minister and Deputy for Housing and Water Resources, should not stand aside and watch while our citizens fall victim to preventable waterborne diseases.
Monday, June 14, 2010
HIGH ELECTRICITY TARIFFS…COULD ARCHITECTURE AND ENGINEERING HELP SAVE COST?
Recent upward adjustment of electricity tariffs by some 43 percentage difference points to a bitter reality that electricity and water tariffs are not going to come down anytime soon though government has heavily subsidized these two amenities soon after the announcements were made.
In fact, it is argued that these subsidies in themselves have rather plunged the utility companies into huge debts as the subsidies were hardly paid to the companies.
As consumers, we have contributed to the waste in the system and added by our actions and inactions have paid more for electricity and water consumption.
It is a common sight that many streetlights, security lights, and many appliances are left on in our homes and offices and other work sites though they might not be in use.
A case in point is the refusal of the Electricity Company of Ghana to turn off street lights at the break of dawn in some communities. Consumers are rather billed to pay for the waste we did not help create in anyway.
Again in our homes and offices, it is common to keep empty fridges, air conditioners, and other electrical gadgets still turned on while we might not be in need of them within a certain time frame, not to talk about their economical use in the rainy season when temperatures are mostly tolerable.
We are tempted to use the water kettle, heater, the hair drier or the Microwave even though using the gas cooker for a few minutes as the most cost effective substitute could do our budget and our health a lot of good.
In short, we lack a sense of responsibility and savings as regards the judicious use of power, water and other resources.
An emerging trend development in our building and construction sector that must be encouraged by all and sundry is the use of transparent roofs that harness the power of the sunlight to lighten even the inner chambers of offices and buildings without the recourse to electric bulbs as the sole source of illumination.
The roofing of the Ring Road Head office of the Ghana Union Assurance Building, directly opposite the Head office of the State Insurance Company (SIC), the head office of Millicom Ghana Limited, operators of Tigo, the Old Parliamentary Affairs building near the Kofi Annan ICT centre and a few homes around cantonments challenged my thoughts as regards the use of architecture and its technology to save the high cost of electricity consumption to many individuals and institutions in the long run.
Foremost, the design of the buildings mentioned is such that the roofs are transparent and thus sunlight sips into the entire floors of the buildings.
Automatically, the cost that come with the use of electricity bulbs on many floors on the building is minimised if not total eliminated and this will definitely translate on their daily electricity consumption of those using this technology.
At nightfall in these homes, one could even enjoy the beauty of the skies from the comfort of your living room.
It would be very prudent if central air conditioning systems are encouraged in huge buildings, churches and mosques, especially the ones that are either under construction or those still on the draftsman’s table, instead on the single unit air conditioners dotted all over the windows of offices all over the country. I believe that the use of the central air conditional system would equally help save cost of electricity consumption and this would help reduce the overhead cost of production of some firms, offices or organisations. Huge savings would be made and channelled into other areas to promote the efficiency of the organization.
Furthermore, the stakeholders in the Energy sector must help design and promote a vigorous educational campaign, slogans and messages to instil in consumers the most effective and efficient energy saving practises so that we do not get to this point again in the future where the only remedy to ensuring effective service delivery by the Electricity Company of Ghana is via tariff increase.
Consumers must be encouraged through radio and television programmes, school outreach programmes, paraphernalia, text messages, Church services, mosque worships, and any other medium possible to promote a best practises to help consumers conserve and use electricity and water wisely or else we risk paying much higher tariffs in future for losses which could have been avoided through education.
The Consumer Protection Agency must be very interested in this action so that they can take the education even closer to the rural areas especially those who do not have the benefit of the power of radio and television.
It is about time our engineers considered new and modern ways of building and construction that would help conserve power and make use of these amenities to our maximum benefit but at the cheapest cost possible.
In fact, it is argued that these subsidies in themselves have rather plunged the utility companies into huge debts as the subsidies were hardly paid to the companies.
As consumers, we have contributed to the waste in the system and added by our actions and inactions have paid more for electricity and water consumption.
It is a common sight that many streetlights, security lights, and many appliances are left on in our homes and offices and other work sites though they might not be in use.
A case in point is the refusal of the Electricity Company of Ghana to turn off street lights at the break of dawn in some communities. Consumers are rather billed to pay for the waste we did not help create in anyway.
Again in our homes and offices, it is common to keep empty fridges, air conditioners, and other electrical gadgets still turned on while we might not be in need of them within a certain time frame, not to talk about their economical use in the rainy season when temperatures are mostly tolerable.
We are tempted to use the water kettle, heater, the hair drier or the Microwave even though using the gas cooker for a few minutes as the most cost effective substitute could do our budget and our health a lot of good.
In short, we lack a sense of responsibility and savings as regards the judicious use of power, water and other resources.
An emerging trend development in our building and construction sector that must be encouraged by all and sundry is the use of transparent roofs that harness the power of the sunlight to lighten even the inner chambers of offices and buildings without the recourse to electric bulbs as the sole source of illumination.
The roofing of the Ring Road Head office of the Ghana Union Assurance Building, directly opposite the Head office of the State Insurance Company (SIC), the head office of Millicom Ghana Limited, operators of Tigo, the Old Parliamentary Affairs building near the Kofi Annan ICT centre and a few homes around cantonments challenged my thoughts as regards the use of architecture and its technology to save the high cost of electricity consumption to many individuals and institutions in the long run.
Foremost, the design of the buildings mentioned is such that the roofs are transparent and thus sunlight sips into the entire floors of the buildings.
Automatically, the cost that come with the use of electricity bulbs on many floors on the building is minimised if not total eliminated and this will definitely translate on their daily electricity consumption of those using this technology.
At nightfall in these homes, one could even enjoy the beauty of the skies from the comfort of your living room.
It would be very prudent if central air conditioning systems are encouraged in huge buildings, churches and mosques, especially the ones that are either under construction or those still on the draftsman’s table, instead on the single unit air conditioners dotted all over the windows of offices all over the country. I believe that the use of the central air conditional system would equally help save cost of electricity consumption and this would help reduce the overhead cost of production of some firms, offices or organisations. Huge savings would be made and channelled into other areas to promote the efficiency of the organization.
Furthermore, the stakeholders in the Energy sector must help design and promote a vigorous educational campaign, slogans and messages to instil in consumers the most effective and efficient energy saving practises so that we do not get to this point again in the future where the only remedy to ensuring effective service delivery by the Electricity Company of Ghana is via tariff increase.
Consumers must be encouraged through radio and television programmes, school outreach programmes, paraphernalia, text messages, Church services, mosque worships, and any other medium possible to promote a best practises to help consumers conserve and use electricity and water wisely or else we risk paying much higher tariffs in future for losses which could have been avoided through education.
The Consumer Protection Agency must be very interested in this action so that they can take the education even closer to the rural areas especially those who do not have the benefit of the power of radio and television.
It is about time our engineers considered new and modern ways of building and construction that would help conserve power and make use of these amenities to our maximum benefit but at the cheapest cost possible.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
PROPOSALS FOR THE CONSTITUTION REVIEW COMMITTEE:
Felix Mawulolo Amegashie
P.O Box MS 422
New Achimota
Accra
June 9, 2010
The Executive Secretary
Constitutional review Committee
Republic of Ghana
Accra
Dear Sir,
PROPOSALS FOR THE CONSTITUTION REVIEW COMMITTEE:
I wish to make the following proposals for your consideration as a citizen of Ghana to the Constitutional Review Process;
1. APPOINTMENT OF MINISTERS FROM PARLIAMENT:
I propose this provision is reviewed so that Parliament can be left alone to concentrate on their legislative powers and duties devoid of Executive interference and manipulation while the Executive is equally left to pick and appoint whoever it deems competent for public office. I guess this will give true meaning to the multi-party democratic concept of separation of Powers.
2. APPOINTMENT OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL:
I propose that the Ministry of Justice is scrapped as it renders the Ombudsman redundant. CHRAJ must be empowered to deal entirely with issues of enforcing and ensuring justice for all citizens under the constitution. The Attorney General must be appointed by the President upon recommendation from the Judicial Counsel with a guaranteed tenure of office commensurate with terms and conditions of service of the Chief Justice, the NCCE Boss and the Commissioner of CHRAJ. This will grant the Attorney General enough freedom to prosecute those who fall foul of the law irrespective of the political head of state.
I propose this due to a rather dangerous trend of the state discontinuing cases initiated, prosecuted but left unfinished only for the sitting Attorney General to discontinue such high profiled corruption cases on the eve of handing over power to a new government because the Attorney General will automatically lose his office and has no prosecutorial powers anymore to finish what he started. It is huge financial loss to the state as many resources are committed into the investigations and prosecution of those cases. Again, it eradicates the temptation where an outgoing Attorney General could deliberately refuse discontinuing these cases and saddle the new Attorney General with the uncompleted case to generally prosecute members of his own government because he/she has no choice than to do so. It will create public discontent for the new Attorney General and even has the tendency to disturb the peace.
3. SCARPPING OF THE MEMBER OF PARLIAMENTS’ SHARE OF THE DISTRCIT ASSEMBLY COMMON FUND:
I propose this is scrapped on grounds that the Member of Parliament’s duties does not extend to undertaking development projects in their constituencies. Once the proposals in paragraph one are implemented, then the MPs will have no other business than sitting in the august house to deliver on their law-making duties and thus their share of the Common Fund will be totally needless. The District Assemblies must be given the Common Funds in full for the DCE and the Local Assembly to manage and to be accountable for. This will speed up development projects in the various districts and equally reduce tensions and “cold wars” between the DCEs and their respective Members of Parliament especially in areas where they both belong to different political parties. One will not use the Funds and its allocation and disbursement as a political tool against the other.
4. PROCUREMENT LAW MUST BE REMOVED: This would open up small and local companies to bid for government contracts and projects.
5. STATE SPONSORSHIP OF POLITICAL PARTIES:
I propose that the constitution must be reviewed to establish principles that would deepen multi-party democracy by providing a legal framework for the state sponsorship of political parties. The Political parties Act bars parties from raising funds outside the jurisdiction and thus cripples many of the parties who have interested sponsors who would want to support their cause especially those who belong to international political ideological organisations who would want to count on member groups to provide technical , material and financial support. The laws as it is now is discriminatory because the law is over bearing on the financial support while remaining silent on technical and other non-financial supports that are still quantified as “resources”.
The state must sponsor parties along the following lines:
• Remuneration for at least Constituency, Regional and National Executive members on salaries or allowances commensurate with their qualifications just like what pertains in the civil servant. This over will help draw very qualified and willing persons with the capacity, qualification and intellect to work full time for these parties without losing anything. I believe this would breed a new group of qualified and well informed technocrats into political parties who will serve with their skills and knowledge, rather than just electing any unemployed person and non-employable person (as regards level of education) into political parties. It would help reduce the wanton lack of resources that these parties suffer especially while in opposition. It has affected many minority parties especially as regards their performance in general elections since 1992. We must not sit to watch these smaller parties die out while we claim to promote a Multi-party democratic culture.
• CAPACITY BUILDING TRAINING WORKSHOPS: This is already in the system but with state sponsorship, as in the earlier point, it becomes mandatory for all parties to participate in these programmes and those who do not attend, are sanctioned by the law just like absenteeism and laziness is dealt with in the civil service. I believe this will make the parties engage more in dialogue among others and thus help reduce the clashes and tensions that characterise these programmes as it stands now. Parties cannot boycott these programmes because it becomes unlawful to do so.
• The sponsorship must also be in the provision of equal time and equal coverage by the state owned media (print and electronic) instead of the parties paying huge monies just to preach their message that is intended to benefit Ghana and not just themselves. The culture of the parties with huge monies buying all airtime in the heat of the campaign thus blotting out the less resourced ones will be eliminated. The voter becomes more informed and can have the luxury of deciding who will make a better government in order to promote our democratic culture. This will reduce the huge media bills of many parties especially the few minority parties.
• The criteria for qualification for state sponsorship must be determined by Parliament.
6. CRIMINALIZING OR DECRIMINALIZING VERBAL ABUSE ON THE PRESIDENT AND EX PRESIDENTS:
I propose that the aspect of the repealed Criminal Libel Law that criminalised the insult of the Commander-In-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces and Head of State of the Republic of Ghana must be re visited. The Law as it stands now opens the President up for unsavoury verbal attacks and insults as we have witnessed in the past few months, on the persona of the President in the name of criticisms. The same Law maintains that it is an offence to insult a chief. I question the basis of this law as it appears very discriminatory.
The chief draws his authority from his subjects, who are mostly clan or tribesmen, but the president draws his authority both legally and legitimately from the people of Ghana who voted him for a limited mandate set out in the Constitution of Ghana. If therefore it is an offense to insult a chief, how can it be permitted under this same law to insult the President? The review must extend not only to the sitting President but our ex-presidents as Ghana will begin to count a number of ex-presidents in the next 30 years.
I believe this review will sanitize the use of foul language and insult foremost by the sitting presidents against their predecessors and the vice versa. This will again teach a positive moral lesson to the youth of Ghana that we can practise multi-party without resorting to unwarranted physical and verbal attacks on dissenting political opinions.
I hope my proposals would be considered.
Thank You.
Felix Mawulolo Amegashie
elolo.elolo@gmail.com
P.O Box MS 422
New Achimota
Accra
June 9, 2010
The Executive Secretary
Constitutional review Committee
Republic of Ghana
Accra
Dear Sir,
PROPOSALS FOR THE CONSTITUTION REVIEW COMMITTEE:
I wish to make the following proposals for your consideration as a citizen of Ghana to the Constitutional Review Process;
1. APPOINTMENT OF MINISTERS FROM PARLIAMENT:
I propose this provision is reviewed so that Parliament can be left alone to concentrate on their legislative powers and duties devoid of Executive interference and manipulation while the Executive is equally left to pick and appoint whoever it deems competent for public office. I guess this will give true meaning to the multi-party democratic concept of separation of Powers.
2. APPOINTMENT OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL:
I propose that the Ministry of Justice is scrapped as it renders the Ombudsman redundant. CHRAJ must be empowered to deal entirely with issues of enforcing and ensuring justice for all citizens under the constitution. The Attorney General must be appointed by the President upon recommendation from the Judicial Counsel with a guaranteed tenure of office commensurate with terms and conditions of service of the Chief Justice, the NCCE Boss and the Commissioner of CHRAJ. This will grant the Attorney General enough freedom to prosecute those who fall foul of the law irrespective of the political head of state.
I propose this due to a rather dangerous trend of the state discontinuing cases initiated, prosecuted but left unfinished only for the sitting Attorney General to discontinue such high profiled corruption cases on the eve of handing over power to a new government because the Attorney General will automatically lose his office and has no prosecutorial powers anymore to finish what he started. It is huge financial loss to the state as many resources are committed into the investigations and prosecution of those cases. Again, it eradicates the temptation where an outgoing Attorney General could deliberately refuse discontinuing these cases and saddle the new Attorney General with the uncompleted case to generally prosecute members of his own government because he/she has no choice than to do so. It will create public discontent for the new Attorney General and even has the tendency to disturb the peace.
3. SCARPPING OF THE MEMBER OF PARLIAMENTS’ SHARE OF THE DISTRCIT ASSEMBLY COMMON FUND:
I propose this is scrapped on grounds that the Member of Parliament’s duties does not extend to undertaking development projects in their constituencies. Once the proposals in paragraph one are implemented, then the MPs will have no other business than sitting in the august house to deliver on their law-making duties and thus their share of the Common Fund will be totally needless. The District Assemblies must be given the Common Funds in full for the DCE and the Local Assembly to manage and to be accountable for. This will speed up development projects in the various districts and equally reduce tensions and “cold wars” between the DCEs and their respective Members of Parliament especially in areas where they both belong to different political parties. One will not use the Funds and its allocation and disbursement as a political tool against the other.
4. PROCUREMENT LAW MUST BE REMOVED: This would open up small and local companies to bid for government contracts and projects.
5. STATE SPONSORSHIP OF POLITICAL PARTIES:
I propose that the constitution must be reviewed to establish principles that would deepen multi-party democracy by providing a legal framework for the state sponsorship of political parties. The Political parties Act bars parties from raising funds outside the jurisdiction and thus cripples many of the parties who have interested sponsors who would want to support their cause especially those who belong to international political ideological organisations who would want to count on member groups to provide technical , material and financial support. The laws as it is now is discriminatory because the law is over bearing on the financial support while remaining silent on technical and other non-financial supports that are still quantified as “resources”.
The state must sponsor parties along the following lines:
• Remuneration for at least Constituency, Regional and National Executive members on salaries or allowances commensurate with their qualifications just like what pertains in the civil servant. This over will help draw very qualified and willing persons with the capacity, qualification and intellect to work full time for these parties without losing anything. I believe this would breed a new group of qualified and well informed technocrats into political parties who will serve with their skills and knowledge, rather than just electing any unemployed person and non-employable person (as regards level of education) into political parties. It would help reduce the wanton lack of resources that these parties suffer especially while in opposition. It has affected many minority parties especially as regards their performance in general elections since 1992. We must not sit to watch these smaller parties die out while we claim to promote a Multi-party democratic culture.
• CAPACITY BUILDING TRAINING WORKSHOPS: This is already in the system but with state sponsorship, as in the earlier point, it becomes mandatory for all parties to participate in these programmes and those who do not attend, are sanctioned by the law just like absenteeism and laziness is dealt with in the civil service. I believe this will make the parties engage more in dialogue among others and thus help reduce the clashes and tensions that characterise these programmes as it stands now. Parties cannot boycott these programmes because it becomes unlawful to do so.
• The sponsorship must also be in the provision of equal time and equal coverage by the state owned media (print and electronic) instead of the parties paying huge monies just to preach their message that is intended to benefit Ghana and not just themselves. The culture of the parties with huge monies buying all airtime in the heat of the campaign thus blotting out the less resourced ones will be eliminated. The voter becomes more informed and can have the luxury of deciding who will make a better government in order to promote our democratic culture. This will reduce the huge media bills of many parties especially the few minority parties.
• The criteria for qualification for state sponsorship must be determined by Parliament.
6. CRIMINALIZING OR DECRIMINALIZING VERBAL ABUSE ON THE PRESIDENT AND EX PRESIDENTS:
I propose that the aspect of the repealed Criminal Libel Law that criminalised the insult of the Commander-In-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces and Head of State of the Republic of Ghana must be re visited. The Law as it stands now opens the President up for unsavoury verbal attacks and insults as we have witnessed in the past few months, on the persona of the President in the name of criticisms. The same Law maintains that it is an offence to insult a chief. I question the basis of this law as it appears very discriminatory.
The chief draws his authority from his subjects, who are mostly clan or tribesmen, but the president draws his authority both legally and legitimately from the people of Ghana who voted him for a limited mandate set out in the Constitution of Ghana. If therefore it is an offense to insult a chief, how can it be permitted under this same law to insult the President? The review must extend not only to the sitting President but our ex-presidents as Ghana will begin to count a number of ex-presidents in the next 30 years.
I believe this review will sanitize the use of foul language and insult foremost by the sitting presidents against their predecessors and the vice versa. This will again teach a positive moral lesson to the youth of Ghana that we can practise multi-party without resorting to unwarranted physical and verbal attacks on dissenting political opinions.
I hope my proposals would be considered.
Thank You.
Felix Mawulolo Amegashie
elolo.elolo@gmail.com
Saturday, June 5, 2010
DYING MOTHERS AND THE KORLE BU TEACHING HOSPITAL’S LAXITY
News broke out, again, of the death of an expectant mother who had to do the unthinkable in her precarious state of climbing 6 flights of concrete stairs to the maternity ward of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. She reportedly died minutes upon making it up the final row of stairs to that ward.
These sorts of deaths, as inexcusable as they might be, must not be allowed to continue especially at this point in the nation’s history when our colonial masters, the Queen and her Crown government, support free maternity care delivery throughout the country with millions of their tax payers’ money.
What level of irresponsibility could this be for the hospital administrators, not only in Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, but all other teaching hospitals and polyclinics benefiting or not from this facility, to put expectant mothers through the wobbly journey of climbing concrete stairs on these high rising and old blocks in our hospitals?
What makes the situation even more dangerous is the rampant breakdown of lifts (escalators) in the Korle Bu teaching hospital thus forcing doctors, fathers, mothers and husbands to carry pregnant and expectant mothers of their backs and shoulders in order to transport them up the maternity ward on these endless staircases. Whoever might have advised, designed, positioned and constructed the maternity ward as high as on the sixth (6th) floor of this colonial building would best pass for an idiot, knowing too well the purpose of the ward, No wonder, maternal mortality in the hospital are so high.
A nursing mother who gave birth to a premature baby after hours of caesarean surgery broke down in tears while narrating her ordeal of ascending and descending these terrifying flights of staircases to and from the ground and the sixth floor just to breastfeed her premature infant. Her tears did not only send shudders down my spine but also provoked outrage in many listeners, at hospital management all over the country, if nothing could have been done over the past fifteen years to either redesign, renovate and relocate the maternity blocks from the high rising storey buildings to ground floors and other buildings built and furnished with state-of-the art facilities.
I doubt if any father who has witnessed the struggles, tears and agony of his loving wife at Korle Bu in the quest to birth out their fruit of love, would consider impregnating the wife again after this terrifying scenario if the wife survives this torture.
I wonder why human rights activists and the women’s’ rights activists organizations have turned a blind eye and a death ear to the piercing cries of their contemporaries. While it is common for these interest groups to go digging and make unguarded statements in areas where their interest does not lie, especially in politics and governance, they have totally ignored their call to defend the rights of their own genders and citizens in the regard.
Medically, what is more life threatening than a patient who had just undergone any form of surgery to engage herself in a vigorous activity such as running up and down a flight of concrete stairs three times in a day. This situation is just the tip of the iceberg of the bigger picture of family relations, husbands, parents, nurses and doctors running helter-skelter in search of water, lanterns, candles and torchlight to perform one task or the other in their frustrations to save helpless lives?
As regards the broken down lifts in the maternity block, the Acting PRO of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Mr. Kojo Opoku Manu, blamed the situation on the rampant power outages that have taken over the nation by surprise (after almost ten months of uninterrupted electricity supply).
According to a news report on an Accra Based radio station, Mr Opoku Manu insisted that though the hospital had backup generators, the “discotheque style” power interruption by the electricity company of Ghana has resulted in the collapse of the lifts. Hours after granting this interview, it was confirmed that the lifts in question have been fixed.
This report brings two issues to the fore. The first being whether it had to take the tears of an expectant mother who had just undergone caesarean surgery and the radio station to correct this dangerous and avoidable situation. Ghanaians will recollect that soon after Dr. George Sipa Yankey, the resigned Health Minister , assumed office, he took a tour to all government health facilities in the country to ascertain issues on the ground as they are experienced by the people of Ghana. He was shocked, to see for himself, that the lift in the maternity ward had broken down for weeks and no one was doing anything about it. He immediately gave the hospital a two (2) week ultimatum to fix the lift and also pay arrears of some category of health workers in the hospital who earlier threatened a strike action. The lift was immediately fixed until it broke down again.
The second issue it invokes is the management style of our state institutions and hospitals. The Acting PRO of Korle Bu Hospital again intimated that government has approved funds for the purchase of new lifts for the replacement of all existing ones on the block. He further explained that the lifts are to be brought in from foreign lands and that it takes time for the airlifting of the equipment and the installation. A question worth asking is that at what point was the requests made and at what point was the funds approved and again, what time table is the hospital administrators working with for the permanent solution to the problem and if the ward is going to be left where it is currently located.
I am not sure that the hospital administrators are adopting a ‘wait and see’ attitude to finding quick solution to this and the acute water crises that has rocked the hospital over the past three (3) weeks especially on the back of reports from the Mamobi Polyclinic that, but for Ms Hannah Bissiw’s efforts from the Ministry of Water Resources, the Polytechnic would still not have tasted clean pipe borne water after fifteen (15) years of interruption. This looks scary and I hope the administrators of the Country’s Teaching Hospitals would adopted a more proactive and caring attitude to their work in consonance with the President’s mantra of “ I care for you” , upon which he successfully campaigned and appointed some of them to represent his interest in these public institutions.
If the decision were mine to take, I would rather the maternity ward was relocated somewhere on the ground floor or the first (1st) floor in the inevitable circumstance as part of long term measures to address this problem.
Additionally, a complaints’ and queries outfit must be opened under the public relations outfit to better address the problem of information flow and information management in the hospital. It might be possible that hospital administrators only hear of these challenges after the occurrence of a fatal accident. In the absence of this , the status quo remains unchanged as no one seem to care what happens to who and who cares about the other.
The establishment of this unit will be a convergent point for complaints, queries, reports and suggestions from patients and doctors, nurses and workers as well in the dissemination of information to the public and patients.
The Electricity Company of Ghana, at whom all fingers seem to be pointing, must clean their chambers in order to render quality service to the hospital and the public. I am sure very little has changed in the quality of service that ECG provides the public over the past 8 years though tariffs have increased more than 200 percent (2007).
At least adequate notice must be served the hospital administrators as and when their lines are scheduled for any temporary interruption for the hospital to be adequately aware and prepared to ensure free flow of service delivery especially in emergency situations.
The hospital should embark on a project of installing adequate water reservoirs on all blocks as soon as possible. These water reservoirs are to be monitored by the Estate Department of the hospital. The reservoirs must be stocked daily whether water flows or not so that the hospital will never be found wanting even if water supply is interrupted without notice for at least three days until the supply is restored.
The Korle Bu Teaching Hospital is the one of the finest, if not the finest, hospitals in the country and we cannot afford to stand aloof to watch the hospital collapse due to causes that could be avoided if management were more proactive in dealing with the daily challenges that mitigates the smooth running of the hospital.
I am not sure that it would be a pleasant sight for one to rush a loved one to the Korle Bu Hospital under life threatening circumstances, to be told rudely in the face by a hospital staff that due to the absence of water, electricity of a lift, there was nothing they could do about you and your loved one’s helpless situation. It could be very paranoiac and the earlier we add our voices to this cause, the better for our future as a nation.
These sorts of deaths, as inexcusable as they might be, must not be allowed to continue especially at this point in the nation’s history when our colonial masters, the Queen and her Crown government, support free maternity care delivery throughout the country with millions of their tax payers’ money.
What level of irresponsibility could this be for the hospital administrators, not only in Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, but all other teaching hospitals and polyclinics benefiting or not from this facility, to put expectant mothers through the wobbly journey of climbing concrete stairs on these high rising and old blocks in our hospitals?
What makes the situation even more dangerous is the rampant breakdown of lifts (escalators) in the Korle Bu teaching hospital thus forcing doctors, fathers, mothers and husbands to carry pregnant and expectant mothers of their backs and shoulders in order to transport them up the maternity ward on these endless staircases. Whoever might have advised, designed, positioned and constructed the maternity ward as high as on the sixth (6th) floor of this colonial building would best pass for an idiot, knowing too well the purpose of the ward, No wonder, maternal mortality in the hospital are so high.
A nursing mother who gave birth to a premature baby after hours of caesarean surgery broke down in tears while narrating her ordeal of ascending and descending these terrifying flights of staircases to and from the ground and the sixth floor just to breastfeed her premature infant. Her tears did not only send shudders down my spine but also provoked outrage in many listeners, at hospital management all over the country, if nothing could have been done over the past fifteen years to either redesign, renovate and relocate the maternity blocks from the high rising storey buildings to ground floors and other buildings built and furnished with state-of-the art facilities.
I doubt if any father who has witnessed the struggles, tears and agony of his loving wife at Korle Bu in the quest to birth out their fruit of love, would consider impregnating the wife again after this terrifying scenario if the wife survives this torture.
I wonder why human rights activists and the women’s’ rights activists organizations have turned a blind eye and a death ear to the piercing cries of their contemporaries. While it is common for these interest groups to go digging and make unguarded statements in areas where their interest does not lie, especially in politics and governance, they have totally ignored their call to defend the rights of their own genders and citizens in the regard.
Medically, what is more life threatening than a patient who had just undergone any form of surgery to engage herself in a vigorous activity such as running up and down a flight of concrete stairs three times in a day. This situation is just the tip of the iceberg of the bigger picture of family relations, husbands, parents, nurses and doctors running helter-skelter in search of water, lanterns, candles and torchlight to perform one task or the other in their frustrations to save helpless lives?
As regards the broken down lifts in the maternity block, the Acting PRO of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Mr. Kojo Opoku Manu, blamed the situation on the rampant power outages that have taken over the nation by surprise (after almost ten months of uninterrupted electricity supply).
According to a news report on an Accra Based radio station, Mr Opoku Manu insisted that though the hospital had backup generators, the “discotheque style” power interruption by the electricity company of Ghana has resulted in the collapse of the lifts. Hours after granting this interview, it was confirmed that the lifts in question have been fixed.
This report brings two issues to the fore. The first being whether it had to take the tears of an expectant mother who had just undergone caesarean surgery and the radio station to correct this dangerous and avoidable situation. Ghanaians will recollect that soon after Dr. George Sipa Yankey, the resigned Health Minister , assumed office, he took a tour to all government health facilities in the country to ascertain issues on the ground as they are experienced by the people of Ghana. He was shocked, to see for himself, that the lift in the maternity ward had broken down for weeks and no one was doing anything about it. He immediately gave the hospital a two (2) week ultimatum to fix the lift and also pay arrears of some category of health workers in the hospital who earlier threatened a strike action. The lift was immediately fixed until it broke down again.
The second issue it invokes is the management style of our state institutions and hospitals. The Acting PRO of Korle Bu Hospital again intimated that government has approved funds for the purchase of new lifts for the replacement of all existing ones on the block. He further explained that the lifts are to be brought in from foreign lands and that it takes time for the airlifting of the equipment and the installation. A question worth asking is that at what point was the requests made and at what point was the funds approved and again, what time table is the hospital administrators working with for the permanent solution to the problem and if the ward is going to be left where it is currently located.
I am not sure that the hospital administrators are adopting a ‘wait and see’ attitude to finding quick solution to this and the acute water crises that has rocked the hospital over the past three (3) weeks especially on the back of reports from the Mamobi Polyclinic that, but for Ms Hannah Bissiw’s efforts from the Ministry of Water Resources, the Polytechnic would still not have tasted clean pipe borne water after fifteen (15) years of interruption. This looks scary and I hope the administrators of the Country’s Teaching Hospitals would adopted a more proactive and caring attitude to their work in consonance with the President’s mantra of “ I care for you” , upon which he successfully campaigned and appointed some of them to represent his interest in these public institutions.
If the decision were mine to take, I would rather the maternity ward was relocated somewhere on the ground floor or the first (1st) floor in the inevitable circumstance as part of long term measures to address this problem.
Additionally, a complaints’ and queries outfit must be opened under the public relations outfit to better address the problem of information flow and information management in the hospital. It might be possible that hospital administrators only hear of these challenges after the occurrence of a fatal accident. In the absence of this , the status quo remains unchanged as no one seem to care what happens to who and who cares about the other.
The establishment of this unit will be a convergent point for complaints, queries, reports and suggestions from patients and doctors, nurses and workers as well in the dissemination of information to the public and patients.
The Electricity Company of Ghana, at whom all fingers seem to be pointing, must clean their chambers in order to render quality service to the hospital and the public. I am sure very little has changed in the quality of service that ECG provides the public over the past 8 years though tariffs have increased more than 200 percent (2007).
At least adequate notice must be served the hospital administrators as and when their lines are scheduled for any temporary interruption for the hospital to be adequately aware and prepared to ensure free flow of service delivery especially in emergency situations.
The hospital should embark on a project of installing adequate water reservoirs on all blocks as soon as possible. These water reservoirs are to be monitored by the Estate Department of the hospital. The reservoirs must be stocked daily whether water flows or not so that the hospital will never be found wanting even if water supply is interrupted without notice for at least three days until the supply is restored.
The Korle Bu Teaching Hospital is the one of the finest, if not the finest, hospitals in the country and we cannot afford to stand aloof to watch the hospital collapse due to causes that could be avoided if management were more proactive in dealing with the daily challenges that mitigates the smooth running of the hospital.
I am not sure that it would be a pleasant sight for one to rush a loved one to the Korle Bu Hospital under life threatening circumstances, to be told rudely in the face by a hospital staff that due to the absence of water, electricity of a lift, there was nothing they could do about you and your loved one’s helpless situation. It could be very paranoiac and the earlier we add our voices to this cause, the better for our future as a nation.
DYING MOTHERS AND THE KORLE BU TEACHING HOSPITAL’S LAXITY
News broke out, again, of the death of an expectant mother who had to do the unthinkable in her precarious state of climbing 6 flights of concrete stairs to the maternity ward of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. She reportedly died minutes upon making it up the final row of stairs to that ward.
These sorts of deaths, as inexcusable as they might be, must not be allowed to continue especially at this point in the nation’s history when our colonial masters, the Queen and her Crown government, support free maternity care delivery throughout the country with millions of their tax payers’ money.
What level of irresponsibility could this be for the hospital administrators, not only in Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, but all other teaching hospitals and polyclinics benefiting or not from this facility, to put expectant mothers through the wobbly journey of climbing concrete stairs on these high rising and old blocks in our hospitals?
What makes the situation even more dangerous is the rampant breakdown of lifts (escalators) in the Korle Bu teaching hospital thus forcing doctors, fathers, mothers and husbands to carry pregnant and expectant mothers of their backs and shoulders in order to transport them up the maternity ward on these endless staircases. Whoever might have advised, designed, positioned and constructed the maternity ward as high as on the sixth (6th) floor of this colonial building would best pass for an idiot, knowing too well the purpose of the ward, No wonder, maternal mortality in the hospital are so high.
A nursing mother who gave birth to a premature baby after hours of caesarean surgery broke down in tears while narrating her ordeal of ascending and descending these terrifying flights of staircases to and from the ground and the sixth floor just to breastfeed her premature infant. Her tears did not only send shudders down my spine but also provoked outrage in many listeners, at hospital management all over the country, if nothing could have been done over the past fifteen years to either redesign, renovate and relocate the maternity blocks from the high rising storey buildings to ground floors and other buildings built and furnished with state-of-the art facilities.
I doubt if any father who has witnessed the struggles, tears and agony of his loving wife at Korle Bu in the quest to birth out their fruit of love, would consider impregnating the wife again after this terrifying scenario if the wife survives this torture.
I wonder why human rights activists and the women’s’ rights activists organizations have turned a blind eye and a death ear to the piercing cries of their contemporaries. While it is common for these interest groups to go digging and make unguarded statements in areas where their interest does not lie, especially in politics and governance, they have totally ignored their call to defend the rights of their own genders and citizens in the regard.
Medically, what is more life threatening than a patient who had just undergone any form of surgery to engage herself in a vigorous activity such as running up and down a flight of concrete stairs three times in a day. This situation is just the tip of the iceberg of the bigger picture of family relations, husbands, parents, nurses and doctors running helter-skelter in search of water, lanterns, candles and torchlight to perform one task or the other in their frustrations to save helpless lives?
As regards the broken down lifts in the maternity block, the Acting PRO of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Mr. Kojo Opoku Manu, blamed the situation on the rampant power outages that have taken over the nation by surprise (after almost ten months of uninterrupted electricity supply).
According to a news report on an Accra Based radio station, Mr Opoku Manu insisted that though the hospital had backup generators, the “discotheque style” power interruption by the electricity company of Ghana has resulted in the collapse of the lifts. Hours after granting this interview, it was confirmed that the lifts in question have been fixed.
This report brings two issues to the fore. The first being whether it had to take the tears of an expectant mother who had just undergone caesarean surgery and the radio station to correct this dangerous and avoidable situation. Ghanaians will recollect that soon after Dr. George Sipa Yankey, the resigned Health Minister , assumed office, he took a tour to all government health facilities in the country to ascertain issues on the ground as they are experienced by the people of Ghana. He was shocked, to see for himself, that the lift in the maternity ward had broken down for weeks and no one was doing anything about it. He immediately gave the hospital a two (2) week ultimatum to fix the lift and also pay arrears of some category of health workers in the hospital who earlier threatened a strike action. The lift was immediately fixed until it broke down again.
The second issue it invokes is the management style of our state institutions and hospitals. The Acting PRO of Korle Bu Hospital again intimated that government has approved funds for the purchase of new lifts for the replacement of all existing ones on the block. He further explained that the lifts are to be brought in from foreign lands and that it takes time for the airlifting of the equipment and the installation. A question worth asking is that at what point was the requests made and at what point was the funds approved and again, what time table is the hospital administrators working with for the permanent solution to the problem and if the ward is going to be left where it is currently located.
I am not sure that the hospital administrators are adopting a ‘wait and see’ attitude to finding quick solution to this and the acute water crises that has rocked the hospital over the past three (3) weeks especially on the back of reports from the Mamobi Polyclinic that, but for Ms Hannah Bissiw’s efforts from the Ministry of Water Resources, the Polytechnic would still not have tasted clean pipe borne water after fifteen (15) years of interruption. This looks scary and I hope the administrators of the Country’s Teaching Hospitals would adopted a more proactive and caring attitude to their work in consonance with the President’s mantra of “ I care for you” , upon which he successfully campaigned and appointed some of them to represent his interest in these public institutions.
If the decision were mine to take, I would rather the maternity ward was relocated somewhere on the ground floor or the first (1st) floor in the inevitable circumstance as part of long term measures to address this problem.
Additionally, a complaints’ and queries outfit must be opened under the public relations outfit to better address the problem of information flow and information management in the hospital. It might be possible that hospital administrators only hear of these challenges after the occurrence of a fatal accident. In the absence of this , the status quo remains unchanged as no one seem to care what happens to who and who cares about the other.
The establishment of this unit will be a convergent point for complaints, queries, reports and suggestions from patients and doctors, nurses and workers as well in the dissemination of information to the public and patients.
The Electricity Company of Ghana, at whom all fingers seem to be pointing, must clean their chambers in order to render quality service to the hospital and the public. I am sure very little has changed in the quality of service that ECG provides the public over the past 8 years though tariffs have increased more than 200 percent (2007).
At least adequate notice must be served the hospital administrators as and when their lines are scheduled for any temporary interruption for the hospital to be adequately aware and prepared to ensure free flow of service delivery especially in emergency situations.
The hospital should embark on a project of installing adequate water reservoirs on all blocks as soon as possible. These water reservoirs are to be monitored by the Estate Department of the hospital. The reservoirs must be stocked daily whether water flows or not so that the hospital will never be found wanting even if water supply is interrupted without notice for at least three days until the supply is restored.
The Korle Bu Teaching Hospital is the one of the finest, if not the finest, hospitals in the country and we cannot afford to stand aloof to watch the hospital collapse due to causes that could be avoided if management were more proactive in dealing with the daily challenges that mitigates the smooth running of the hospital.
I am not sure that it would be a pleasant sight for one to rush a loved one to the Korle Bu Hospital under life threatening circumstances, to be told rudely in the face by a hospital staff that due to the absence of water, electricity of a lift, there was nothing they could do about you and your loved one’s helpless situation. It could be very paranoiac and the earlier we add our voices to this cause, the better for our future as a nation.
These sorts of deaths, as inexcusable as they might be, must not be allowed to continue especially at this point in the nation’s history when our colonial masters, the Queen and her Crown government, support free maternity care delivery throughout the country with millions of their tax payers’ money.
What level of irresponsibility could this be for the hospital administrators, not only in Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, but all other teaching hospitals and polyclinics benefiting or not from this facility, to put expectant mothers through the wobbly journey of climbing concrete stairs on these high rising and old blocks in our hospitals?
What makes the situation even more dangerous is the rampant breakdown of lifts (escalators) in the Korle Bu teaching hospital thus forcing doctors, fathers, mothers and husbands to carry pregnant and expectant mothers of their backs and shoulders in order to transport them up the maternity ward on these endless staircases. Whoever might have advised, designed, positioned and constructed the maternity ward as high as on the sixth (6th) floor of this colonial building would best pass for an idiot, knowing too well the purpose of the ward, No wonder, maternal mortality in the hospital are so high.
A nursing mother who gave birth to a premature baby after hours of caesarean surgery broke down in tears while narrating her ordeal of ascending and descending these terrifying flights of staircases to and from the ground and the sixth floor just to breastfeed her premature infant. Her tears did not only send shudders down my spine but also provoked outrage in many listeners, at hospital management all over the country, if nothing could have been done over the past fifteen years to either redesign, renovate and relocate the maternity blocks from the high rising storey buildings to ground floors and other buildings built and furnished with state-of-the art facilities.
I doubt if any father who has witnessed the struggles, tears and agony of his loving wife at Korle Bu in the quest to birth out their fruit of love, would consider impregnating the wife again after this terrifying scenario if the wife survives this torture.
I wonder why human rights activists and the women’s’ rights activists organizations have turned a blind eye and a death ear to the piercing cries of their contemporaries. While it is common for these interest groups to go digging and make unguarded statements in areas where their interest does not lie, especially in politics and governance, they have totally ignored their call to defend the rights of their own genders and citizens in the regard.
Medically, what is more life threatening than a patient who had just undergone any form of surgery to engage herself in a vigorous activity such as running up and down a flight of concrete stairs three times in a day. This situation is just the tip of the iceberg of the bigger picture of family relations, husbands, parents, nurses and doctors running helter-skelter in search of water, lanterns, candles and torchlight to perform one task or the other in their frustrations to save helpless lives?
As regards the broken down lifts in the maternity block, the Acting PRO of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Mr. Kojo Opoku Manu, blamed the situation on the rampant power outages that have taken over the nation by surprise (after almost ten months of uninterrupted electricity supply).
According to a news report on an Accra Based radio station, Mr Opoku Manu insisted that though the hospital had backup generators, the “discotheque style” power interruption by the electricity company of Ghana has resulted in the collapse of the lifts. Hours after granting this interview, it was confirmed that the lifts in question have been fixed.
This report brings two issues to the fore. The first being whether it had to take the tears of an expectant mother who had just undergone caesarean surgery and the radio station to correct this dangerous and avoidable situation. Ghanaians will recollect that soon after Dr. George Sipa Yankey, the resigned Health Minister , assumed office, he took a tour to all government health facilities in the country to ascertain issues on the ground as they are experienced by the people of Ghana. He was shocked, to see for himself, that the lift in the maternity ward had broken down for weeks and no one was doing anything about it. He immediately gave the hospital a two (2) week ultimatum to fix the lift and also pay arrears of some category of health workers in the hospital who earlier threatened a strike action. The lift was immediately fixed until it broke down again.
The second issue it invokes is the management style of our state institutions and hospitals. The Acting PRO of Korle Bu Hospital again intimated that government has approved funds for the purchase of new lifts for the replacement of all existing ones on the block. He further explained that the lifts are to be brought in from foreign lands and that it takes time for the airlifting of the equipment and the installation. A question worth asking is that at what point was the requests made and at what point was the funds approved and again, what time table is the hospital administrators working with for the permanent solution to the problem and if the ward is going to be left where it is currently located.
I am not sure that the hospital administrators are adopting a ‘wait and see’ attitude to finding quick solution to this and the acute water crises that has rocked the hospital over the past three (3) weeks especially on the back of reports from the Mamobi Polyclinic that, but for Ms Hannah Bissiw’s efforts from the Ministry of Water Resources, the Polytechnic would still not have tasted clean pipe borne water after fifteen (15) years of interruption. This looks scary and I hope the administrators of the Country’s Teaching Hospitals would adopted a more proactive and caring attitude to their work in consonance with the President’s mantra of “ I care for you” , upon which he successfully campaigned and appointed some of them to represent his interest in these public institutions.
If the decision were mine to take, I would rather the maternity ward was relocated somewhere on the ground floor or the first (1st) floor in the inevitable circumstance as part of long term measures to address this problem.
Additionally, a complaints’ and queries outfit must be opened under the public relations outfit to better address the problem of information flow and information management in the hospital. It might be possible that hospital administrators only hear of these challenges after the occurrence of a fatal accident. In the absence of this , the status quo remains unchanged as no one seem to care what happens to who and who cares about the other.
The establishment of this unit will be a convergent point for complaints, queries, reports and suggestions from patients and doctors, nurses and workers as well in the dissemination of information to the public and patients.
The Electricity Company of Ghana, at whom all fingers seem to be pointing, must clean their chambers in order to render quality service to the hospital and the public. I am sure very little has changed in the quality of service that ECG provides the public over the past 8 years though tariffs have increased more than 200 percent (2007).
At least adequate notice must be served the hospital administrators as and when their lines are scheduled for any temporary interruption for the hospital to be adequately aware and prepared to ensure free flow of service delivery especially in emergency situations.
The hospital should embark on a project of installing adequate water reservoirs on all blocks as soon as possible. These water reservoirs are to be monitored by the Estate Department of the hospital. The reservoirs must be stocked daily whether water flows or not so that the hospital will never be found wanting even if water supply is interrupted without notice for at least three days until the supply is restored.
The Korle Bu Teaching Hospital is the one of the finest, if not the finest, hospitals in the country and we cannot afford to stand aloof to watch the hospital collapse due to causes that could be avoided if management were more proactive in dealing with the daily challenges that mitigates the smooth running of the hospital.
I am not sure that it would be a pleasant sight for one to rush a loved one to the Korle Bu Hospital under life threatening circumstances, to be told rudely in the face by a hospital staff that due to the absence of water, electricity of a lift, there was nothing they could do about you and your loved one’s helpless situation. It could be very paranoiac and the earlier we add our voices to this cause, the better for our future as a nation.
THE DETOXIFICATION MADNESS!!
The quest by many Ghanaians to live healthier, longer and happier lives has created a new generation of self-styled, quack and profiteering “doctors” all over the capital. I am sure many of them have taken this new and very lucrative trade to the regions and districts where they are exploiting the gullible public while our authorities look on helpless.
One can count as many as 15 different make-shift joints where these machines are established right under the noses of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) , the Ghana Standard Board and the Food and Drugs Board with these quack doctors luring passers-by into their tents to be “detoxified”.
In as much as it is important that we got ourselves “detoxified” once in a while, I am not amused by the carte blanche we have granted these people to mount, sell and use these machines on citizens of Ghana without any form of public notice as to the status of these practitioners under the statutes Food and Drugs or the Ghana Standard Board.
A few months ago, it used to be some Chinese electrical diagnostic machines that generated shocks all over one’s palms and fingers after one lays his palms on it while it was charged with electricity, then a metallic pointer is run around one’s fingers and palms to some specific spots.
One is then told, by these self-styled doctors, that one was suffering from one ailment or another and interestingly, they had all manner of Chinese herbal and orthodox medicines in boxes that they sell to their terrified “patients” with the promise that one’s problems were soon to be over when one used those stuff (with inscriptions, dosage, and instructions in an incomprehensible hardcore Chinese grammar).
The euphoria generated by these people and the persistence of the media for the mandated bodies to sanction them for these acts of lawlessness, crushed their empires only to be taken over by a more controversial “Detoxification” trade.
Today, the “Detoxifiers” are here and doing brisk business by far. I have seen some of these equipment in some medical facilities and I have no qualms with that since those managing and administering them are qualified and licenced medical officers who are recognised by the Ghana Medical Association, the Ministry of Health or the Association of Traditional Health Practitioners.
It is therefore totally unacceptable for us to sit back and watch these charlatans engage in this complex and non-traditional medical practice on daily basis.
My concerns are borne out of the fact that many of these people who administer the drugs, and handle this equipment are not trained practitioners by all measures. Some leave their clients more confused and frustrated than they met them.
They are exploiting the ignorance of the public for their financial gain. One is charged for dipping one’s feet in water with some weird-looking wires suspend from your arms, in the name of “Detoxification”. One is charged for the cost of special Chinese drugs to which they hold monopoly over their sources, (depending on which tent one entered).
I have had a nasty experience with one of these Chinese tonics while in my final year at the University of Ghana, Legon. It was so terrible that I had to be rushed to the hospital because I was passed out. At the hospital, the doctor cautioned me seriously against any future patronage of anything sold outside the pharmacy or the hospital with or without medical advice.
It took the nurses about seven (7) insertions on both arms before they could locate a vein to administer some bags of drip on me. I was discharged 3 days later to continue with my exams. Since that terrible experience, I have always been cautious of those who parade themselves in buses, schools, offices and market places selling all manner of concoctions and leaves, in the name of herbal or Chinese medicine.
Somewhere in 2008, I remember a TV3 story about a young man who lost his manhood through a surgical operation because he consumed an aphrodisiac that affected him terribly. Another young man reportedly died from the consumption of similar materials.
The Ghana Medical Association, the Ghana Standard Board, the Food and Drugs Board must collaborate to chase these people out of our system, same way they were tough on importers of turkey tail and other unwholesome food products some weeks ago.
We seem to have forgotten how a baby food product (milk) in China killed so many babies. The Chief Executive Officer of that company is serving a life sentence in Prison as of today.
We should not wait until the adverse effects of these people’s greed dawn on us before we take action.
P/s: what are those medicine sellers doing on the VIP Buses? Can’t we have a decent trip from Accra to Kumasi on these VIP buses without the intrusion, shouts and embarrassment from anyone? One had the guts tell me that a small spot (birthmark) I have below my left eyelids was the early signs of looming “kooko” (piles), and that if I did not buy the medicine, it was going to make me blind? Does he know how long I grew with that birthmark?
One can count as many as 15 different make-shift joints where these machines are established right under the noses of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) , the Ghana Standard Board and the Food and Drugs Board with these quack doctors luring passers-by into their tents to be “detoxified”.
In as much as it is important that we got ourselves “detoxified” once in a while, I am not amused by the carte blanche we have granted these people to mount, sell and use these machines on citizens of Ghana without any form of public notice as to the status of these practitioners under the statutes Food and Drugs or the Ghana Standard Board.
A few months ago, it used to be some Chinese electrical diagnostic machines that generated shocks all over one’s palms and fingers after one lays his palms on it while it was charged with electricity, then a metallic pointer is run around one’s fingers and palms to some specific spots.
One is then told, by these self-styled doctors, that one was suffering from one ailment or another and interestingly, they had all manner of Chinese herbal and orthodox medicines in boxes that they sell to their terrified “patients” with the promise that one’s problems were soon to be over when one used those stuff (with inscriptions, dosage, and instructions in an incomprehensible hardcore Chinese grammar).
The euphoria generated by these people and the persistence of the media for the mandated bodies to sanction them for these acts of lawlessness, crushed their empires only to be taken over by a more controversial “Detoxification” trade.
Today, the “Detoxifiers” are here and doing brisk business by far. I have seen some of these equipment in some medical facilities and I have no qualms with that since those managing and administering them are qualified and licenced medical officers who are recognised by the Ghana Medical Association, the Ministry of Health or the Association of Traditional Health Practitioners.
It is therefore totally unacceptable for us to sit back and watch these charlatans engage in this complex and non-traditional medical practice on daily basis.
My concerns are borne out of the fact that many of these people who administer the drugs, and handle this equipment are not trained practitioners by all measures. Some leave their clients more confused and frustrated than they met them.
They are exploiting the ignorance of the public for their financial gain. One is charged for dipping one’s feet in water with some weird-looking wires suspend from your arms, in the name of “Detoxification”. One is charged for the cost of special Chinese drugs to which they hold monopoly over their sources, (depending on which tent one entered).
I have had a nasty experience with one of these Chinese tonics while in my final year at the University of Ghana, Legon. It was so terrible that I had to be rushed to the hospital because I was passed out. At the hospital, the doctor cautioned me seriously against any future patronage of anything sold outside the pharmacy or the hospital with or without medical advice.
It took the nurses about seven (7) insertions on both arms before they could locate a vein to administer some bags of drip on me. I was discharged 3 days later to continue with my exams. Since that terrible experience, I have always been cautious of those who parade themselves in buses, schools, offices and market places selling all manner of concoctions and leaves, in the name of herbal or Chinese medicine.
Somewhere in 2008, I remember a TV3 story about a young man who lost his manhood through a surgical operation because he consumed an aphrodisiac that affected him terribly. Another young man reportedly died from the consumption of similar materials.
The Ghana Medical Association, the Ghana Standard Board, the Food and Drugs Board must collaborate to chase these people out of our system, same way they were tough on importers of turkey tail and other unwholesome food products some weeks ago.
We seem to have forgotten how a baby food product (milk) in China killed so many babies. The Chief Executive Officer of that company is serving a life sentence in Prison as of today.
We should not wait until the adverse effects of these people’s greed dawn on us before we take action.
P/s: what are those medicine sellers doing on the VIP Buses? Can’t we have a decent trip from Accra to Kumasi on these VIP buses without the intrusion, shouts and embarrassment from anyone? One had the guts tell me that a small spot (birthmark) I have below my left eyelids was the early signs of looming “kooko” (piles), and that if I did not buy the medicine, it was going to make me blind? Does he know how long I grew with that birthmark?
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
…the rains… the flood…our failures!
It came as no surprise to me when the Mayor of Accra, Dr. Alfred Vanderpuye, acknowledged soberly that previous attempts to forestall the havoc that have been visited on many parts of Accra after every downpour have not been too beneficial. The most publicized method of reducing the effects of the flood has been the demolition of houses on water ways but time has proven that this approach has failed us.
Inasmuch as I support the demolition of houses and other unapproved structures constructed in water ways and within the boundaries of reserved spaces, it is equally tenable for our city authorities to shift focus to other areas that would support the demolition exercise not as an end in itself but as a means to achieving the ends of reducing the floods and their effect in the capital and many parts of the country.
Taking some parts Accra for instance, it is incumbent upon our engineers, planners and city authorities to revisit the numerous abandoned drain and gutter construction projects in the capital.
Taking the Alajo-Avenor Junction drains for instance, it is clear that that project is yet to be complete yet three (3) rainy seasons have come and gone. Coupled with the neglect of these projects ( due to the lack of funds, I believe) is the more hydra-headed human problem of the dumping of all manner of sewage and solid waste into these drains that only chokes and blocks free passage of rushing water down these drains. The chokes become barriers that divert the water to other supple areas thus destroying anything lying in its wake.
Many of the drains like the Odorna-Grapic Road- Korle Gonno channel, is choked with all manner of materials notably plastic and braids.
De-silting of these huge drains might be an option but I am not sure it would be a workable option since we are already caught up in the season.
Again, I think the National Disaster Management Organization is gradually turning herself into a “Relief Management” body instead of refocusing on supporting educational campaigns by other related agencies before, during and after the rainy seasons.
NADMO must be proactive, rather than lying in wait for disaster to strike before they make a move in the distribution of beddings, toiletries, tents and roofing sheets to disaster victims.
We can do better as a nation if we take advantage of the off season to engage in vigorous education exercises to alert the citizenry of their core duties and responsibilities in helping curb the effects of the flood.
Furthermore, it is equally incumbent on our courts to expedite action on the numerous cases and injunctions brought before it by property owners who are resisting attempts by the state to move their property off these water ways so that a more comprehensive plan for the construction of drains can be executed.
What would it profit the state to pull down houses built in water ways only to deposit the rubbles in situ for it to block these water ways all over again? Soon after the demolition, the water ways must be property demarcated and drains constructed to create a more visible course for water to flow in these areas.
Once the drains have taken over the places of the demolished buildings, I wonder who would want to build in these same places again, thus solving this problem once and for all.
The Nima drain that runs along the Kawukudi Junction area must be given serious attention by the city authorities. It is about time a proper drain is constructed through that area. What exists there is a health threat to many indigenes of the area.
What has become of the Isreali Company that introduced the bio-degradable technology aimed at curbing the plastic menace in the capital?
I cannot tell what has become of that project as of now. I hope we would query the AMA to speak to this matter as a socially accountable institution.
I understand Rwanda has actually banned the use of plastic products and thus Rwanda happens to be one of the cleanest nations in Africa. I believe we can learn some useful lessons from them.
We must act responsibly as a people even as we breathe fire down the neck of government to solve this perennial flooding problem.
Let us play our part and desist from engaging in those acts that only aggravate the already existing problems while we demand urgent action from government.
What more can we not do to build a better Ghana?
Inasmuch as I support the demolition of houses and other unapproved structures constructed in water ways and within the boundaries of reserved spaces, it is equally tenable for our city authorities to shift focus to other areas that would support the demolition exercise not as an end in itself but as a means to achieving the ends of reducing the floods and their effect in the capital and many parts of the country.
Taking some parts Accra for instance, it is incumbent upon our engineers, planners and city authorities to revisit the numerous abandoned drain and gutter construction projects in the capital.
Taking the Alajo-Avenor Junction drains for instance, it is clear that that project is yet to be complete yet three (3) rainy seasons have come and gone. Coupled with the neglect of these projects ( due to the lack of funds, I believe) is the more hydra-headed human problem of the dumping of all manner of sewage and solid waste into these drains that only chokes and blocks free passage of rushing water down these drains. The chokes become barriers that divert the water to other supple areas thus destroying anything lying in its wake.
Many of the drains like the Odorna-Grapic Road- Korle Gonno channel, is choked with all manner of materials notably plastic and braids.
De-silting of these huge drains might be an option but I am not sure it would be a workable option since we are already caught up in the season.
Again, I think the National Disaster Management Organization is gradually turning herself into a “Relief Management” body instead of refocusing on supporting educational campaigns by other related agencies before, during and after the rainy seasons.
NADMO must be proactive, rather than lying in wait for disaster to strike before they make a move in the distribution of beddings, toiletries, tents and roofing sheets to disaster victims.
We can do better as a nation if we take advantage of the off season to engage in vigorous education exercises to alert the citizenry of their core duties and responsibilities in helping curb the effects of the flood.
Furthermore, it is equally incumbent on our courts to expedite action on the numerous cases and injunctions brought before it by property owners who are resisting attempts by the state to move their property off these water ways so that a more comprehensive plan for the construction of drains can be executed.
What would it profit the state to pull down houses built in water ways only to deposit the rubbles in situ for it to block these water ways all over again? Soon after the demolition, the water ways must be property demarcated and drains constructed to create a more visible course for water to flow in these areas.
Once the drains have taken over the places of the demolished buildings, I wonder who would want to build in these same places again, thus solving this problem once and for all.
The Nima drain that runs along the Kawukudi Junction area must be given serious attention by the city authorities. It is about time a proper drain is constructed through that area. What exists there is a health threat to many indigenes of the area.
What has become of the Isreali Company that introduced the bio-degradable technology aimed at curbing the plastic menace in the capital?
I cannot tell what has become of that project as of now. I hope we would query the AMA to speak to this matter as a socially accountable institution.
I understand Rwanda has actually banned the use of plastic products and thus Rwanda happens to be one of the cleanest nations in Africa. I believe we can learn some useful lessons from them.
We must act responsibly as a people even as we breathe fire down the neck of government to solve this perennial flooding problem.
Let us play our part and desist from engaging in those acts that only aggravate the already existing problems while we demand urgent action from government.
What more can we not do to build a better Ghana?
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