Press Statement on Recent Accra Floods

GHANA PENTECOSTAL AND CHARISMATIC COUNCIL

15^th June, 2020

The Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council expresses its deepest condolences to the families of the deceased victims of last Tuesday, 9^th June 2020 Accra Flooding. The Council also wishes the injured a very speedy recovery. 

It is the position of the Council that the perennial Accra flooding is gradually becoming an annual “normal” phenomenon, with Governments over the last three decades paying lip service to the problem.

After the June 3^rd 2015 Accra Twin Flood and Fire Disaster that killed over 150 people, we were told by authorities then that “Never again” would Accra experience such floods. Once again, nothing structurally has taken place five years on. The situation seems to be going from bad to worse.

As Ghanaians, we seem not to be angry enough with ourselves and with the people we have elected, placed in authority of trust and paid over the years to find solutions to these non-rocket science problems. While calling on the Government and all relevant State Agencies as a matter of urgency to endeavour to be alive to their responsibilities by strictly enforcing the relevant laws against the siting of unauthorised buildings and structures on waterways, the supervision of the construction of substandard drains in flood-prone areas, the Council likewise calls on all Ghanaians to live up to our civic responsibilities by stopping the indiscriminate littering of the drains with refuse, especially plastic waste. 

It is the belief of this Council that human behaviour without regulations and directions is the same everywhere and that the difference between us in Ghana and elsewhere in the developed world is the strict enforcement of their laws to change the behaviour of their citizens. Until we strictly enforce our laws on buildings and sanitation with punitive sanctions without regard to societal and political status, the Ghanaian will continue to behave irresponsibly to his or her environment.

To this end, the Council wishes to encourage the Government to muster the political will by strictly enforcing the proposed ban on the manufacture and importation of single-use plastic products in the country as a matter of urgency, while working in the short to medium term to strengthen the capacities and independence of key state institutions such as the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), the National Disaster Management Authority, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies and their sub-structures to enforce the relevant laws without undue political interference in their appointments and work.   

The Council and its member Churches in this regard are willing to support the Government with its resources, convening authority and mobilization abilities to stem this perennial flooding phenomenon in Accra and elsewhere in the country to save lives and properties.  

Signed: 

Rev. Emmanuel T. Barrigah

General Secretary