We must learn from June 3 disaster

The tears have dried and the physical scars have healed, but the June 3, 2015 flood and fire disaster at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra will remain on the minds of many Ghanaians for a long time.   

To those in the immediate vicinity of the disaster, it seemed like the end of the human race had come, as fire winged its way with speed on the water and brought mishap to many families.

Apart from the about 160 people who died in the disaster, some residential accommodation, as well as businesses, were lost in the disaster.

Had it not been for the fire component and the extra serious dimension it brought to events of the day, we would have taken the flooding as a ‘normal’ annual discomfort. 

We would have scooped the water out of our flooded living rooms, put out our wet clothes to dry when the sun came out again and carried on with our lives until another flood set in for the ritual to start all over again.   

We are, in effect, people with short memory who quickly forget about the causes of our misfortunes after the official days of mourning and when better days seem to appear.  

If we were collectively not such a people, we would not look on while structures demolished to allow the free flow of water after June 3 start to appear again. We would also not see plastics thrown about anyhow and the gutters we so eagerly de-silted now full again with rubbish.

The June 3 disaster reminded us of several issues we were already aware of but had conveniently decided to overlook. 

We knew the disaster management outfits needed to be better equipped; we knew we didn’t have enough ambulances, and we knew the rains always come.

 We have obviously learnt some crucial lessons from the unfortunate incident and we must not be caught so unprepared for the rains again. 

There was some renewed effort to  dredge the Odaw drain and we think that zeal has to be ongoing till all that needs to be done on the famous drain is completed.  

We commiserate with all those who lost loved ones in the tragedy. A year has gone and we pray that an ordeal of such magnitude does not happen in any part of our nation again.

Some things happen by natural design and we cannot stop them. There are, however, situations we can avert when we sit up and plan properly. 

This nation abounds with brilliant brains capable of coming up with solutions to every kind of structural or mechanical problems we face. They trot the world solving problems and we can harness our own abilities to solve our own problems.

Sometimes it is the lack of will on the part of our political leaders to take pragmatic action to stem some of the problems we face. After all, we choose our leaders to ensure that we live good lives.  

Now that we know we do not wish to encounter anything near what happened on June 3, we must all be prepared to do our little bit in our communities to safeguard the environment and save our own lives.