By Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission, Elikem Kotoko, has urged authorities to demolish all illegal structures built on waterways without compromise, insisting that political considerations should never take precedence over protecting lives from flooding.
The government has announced plans to deploy the Ghana Armed Forces to lead post-flood recovery operations. This, according to Mr Kotoko, is appropriate and must be done without fear of favour.
Speaking at a media briefing on Friday, 3 July, the Director General of Joint Operations of the Ghana Armed Forces, Brigadier General Forster Okae-Yeboah, said the military had been assigned to coordinate the exercise under a wider government flood mitigation initiative intended to restore affected communities and reduce the risk of similar disasters in the future.
Discussing the disaster, Mr Kotoko said, “I commend the need for the military to come in to do this. I expect a diligent job to be done, and I expect that, moving forward, this has given us a lot of lessons so that it should not happen again,” on Channel One TV’s Breakfast Daily on Monday, 6 July.
“Others will again say there’s a political consequence for these and all of that. There’s no greater political consequence than losing the lives of people, and therefore there’s a need for us to sit up and make sure we fight this,” Kotoko added.
He then stressed that long-term solutions must be identified to address the underlying causes of the country’s persistent flooding.
Mr Kotoko bemoaned that the deadly floods of 29th June, which claimed more than 13 lives and affected over 7,000 households, should mark a decisive moment for stricter enforcement of planning regulations and environmental laws.
His remarks come as the Ghana Armed Forces prepares to oversee a nationwide clean-up and recovery exercise following the floods. Authorities have indicated that buildings and other structures illegally occupying waterways and drainage corridors may be demolished as part of the operation.
