An Open Letter to Mr. Kofi Potuphy and NADMO: Pulling Down Houses Not an Answer to Flooding in Accra

by Ben Ofosu-Appiah, Tokyo, Japan.

Attn: Mr. Kofi Portuphy,
Director, NADMO.
ACCRA-GHANA.

Dear Mr. Portuphy,

Pulling Down Houses Not An Answer To The Flooding In Accra.

I am compelled to write to you on this one because frankly I see NADMO as a useless national organization as it is constituted now and as it has always been. I have written about this before in the Ghanaian press and also in the international press during the NPP's 8 years rule. You have headed this organization before, and you didn't do a particularly good job. Not many people get a second chance after messing up but you have it now. So let's see a proactive NADMO, more responsive and forward looking. I am particularly dismayed at why you were selected to head an organization yo have headed before and did not have a track record of success. We need people with fresh thinking and innovative ideas

I have learned through the press that NADMO under your leadership is about to undertake a demolition exercise in Accra to destroy all buildings you have identified as 'sitting on water ways' in the capital as an answer to the perennial flooding problem in Accra. My question is that do you truly belief that destroying peoples homes that they have laboured hard, worked all their lives to build will solve the flooding problems in Accra? If it will, fair enough but I bet it won't. Since you are on record as haven said that the residence of the former President John Kuffour and the near by Trassaco estate are 'sitting on a huge water way' , so will you demolish them too? Apart from the obviously huge political fallout from such an unwise decision, and also the wrong signals the demolition of the Trassaco estate will send to investors both local and international that we are trying to attract, any decision to tamper with these properties will be a political suicide. But that is jus t by the way, the real issue is that you and NADMO can demolish all houses in Accra and the flooding won't go away. In other words, the answer to the flooding in Accra doesn't lie in pulling down peoples houses. It lies in improving the drainage system of the city!!! Simple isn't it?

It doesn't take the genuis of a rocket scientist to know that Accra has one of the worst drainage systems in the entire World. We need to upgrade the current system and construct more underground drainage. Legon with its undergroung drainage system has survived all flooding in Accra and is somewhat immuned. Obviously that's expensive but it is something we need to do. We need to apply 21st Century solutions to these barrage of problems that global warming and climate change are going to throw our way every now and then. The argument that we need to pull down people's homes inorder to solve the flooding problems is applying 19th Century solutions to 21st Century problems. Remember the course of a whole river can be diverted let alone a run off. Water run offs can be diverted into underground drainage systems that emties into the sea. Open gutters are even too dangerous and pose huge risks to life and property but we have them all over the place and choked too. NADMO's insiten ce on destroying people's homes smacks of an organization that lacks innovative ideas and fresh thinking. This organization is a complete failure and its top leadership need to resign enbloc to take blame for failing the nation and not planning ahead for all these problems.

If NADMO is hell bent on its demolition exercise, then I suppose they will go ahead and demolish Wofa Kuffour's residence and the Trassaco estates and damned the consequences but what do I hear? Mr. Kofi Portuphy, I hear in the news that you and NADMO have entered into an agreement with the owners of Trassaco and the former President to construct a drainage system near the property that will divert the water run off after rains inorder to save the property from destruction. Isn't this an open admission of the obvious solution to the flooding problems in Accra? A more modern and efficient drainage system period!!! That is the answer !!! Why don't NADMO, AMA, and the government do the same by improving the drainage system in Accra and save these poor folks in Mataheko, Kaneshi, Dansoman, Labadi etc or wherever their properties are ? Or is the usual case of the strong, the powerful and the rich will survive and have their properties saved while the weak, the poor and the powerle ss will lose everything? Governments exist to protect the poor, the weak and the powerless too. This doesn't make sense, it is against common sense, and very stupid decison. It reflects the inefficiency, bad judgement, lack of ideas on the part of NADMO, the AMA and the central government.

In conclusion, I call on you, Mr. Kofi Potuphy, NADMO, AMA, and the government to reflect deeply on this before you do anything stupid.

Sincerely,

Ben Ofosu-Appiah

Ben Ofosu-Appiah

Tokyo, Japan

The author is Public Policy expert, senior social and political analyst and a political strategist based in Tokyo, Japan.