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No! Asaase Yaa [mother earth] could not recently
annoy me by shaking itself in some parts of the Greater Accra Region much more
than National Disaster Management Organization’s [NADMO] hollow commentary on
the incident— a commentary of vain Christmas message to persons living in
earthquake-prone zones and Ghanaians at large.
“With the recent earth
tremors happening, we caution the citizens to prepare for any imminent
occurrence of earthquake disaster,” a statement signed by the Director General
of NADMO, Eric Nana Agyemang-Prempeh cautioned.
The caution, I must
say, is somehow welcoming as the earth tremor was frightening enough. It felt
as though someone had the earth in his/her hands, rigorously shaking it left
and right— the way a music quartet of the Seventh-day Adventists Church shake
their maracas.
It was Sunday, December
9, 2018, and it was the tremor that woke me up from my slumber. The said earth
tremor occurred with the swiftness of a duiker leaving residents of Kasoa-Nyanyanu
and Weija— the most susceptible spots— and other areas in fear.
“Massa, what was that?”
said a friend of mine, Oye Yaw Addofoh.
Oye Yaw Addofoh,
publisher of the online news portal, The Probe, had visited me then and would
enquire from me what that shake was when I woke up to see him already by his
laptop.
“That's certainly an
earthquake,” I said.
“Really? Earthquake
here?”
“Yes.”
As the wave of shakeup
could be felt even in Oyibi, Greater Accra, my area in Ga South had its fair
share. This, when NADMO sends a caution that residents should be on the alert, is
considerably good. However, it beats my imagination that NADMO sent out such a
vague statement.
How do citizens “prepare
for any imminent occurrence of earthquake disaster”? Are they to stand by their
houses, go sit on top of their houses or abandon it all together?
Without mincing words,
NADMO’s 2018 statement of a Christmas message to Ghanaians was the most bogus
of press statements I had read last year.
Clearly, the said
statement revealed that perhaps the people appointed to ‘manage disasters’ in
the country need to be managed themselves.
“NADMO and its partners
are ready to mitigate the effect of any such occurrence [referring to the earthquake]
on the citizenry, especially those living along the fault line,” a portion of
the statement read.
Is this not nauseating to
have come from NADMO? Is NADMO waiting for the disaster to strike before they
mitigate its effect or what exactly did they mean? Did NADMO’s Eric Nana
Agyemang-Prempeh write this statement himself or it was written for him to
sign? If we are to go by the latter, did the Director General read through what
he appended his signature to?
This is a country where
many of our leaders had their education overseas or lived there. Yet, these
same leaders refuse to implement what they saw and marveled about abroad.
"THIS IS A TEST of
the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed," was a
message sent by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to people in America in
2018.
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| US' message to its people in 2018 |
The message dubbed Presidential Alert went to some 225
million people at the same time. A friend [Ghanaian] there told me it came with
loud notification tone and vibration on phones. The alert was designed to warn
the public in the event of a national emergency such as a missile attack.
“All smartphones in
Japan have an earthquake/tsunami alert system installed, hence, about 5 to 10
seconds before a disaster strikes the warning system should give people a
precious few extra seconds to escape to a safer place or duck under the table.
When the alert goes off a buzzing noise is heard, and a voice keeps saying,
“Jishin desu! Jishin desu” (meaning “There is an earthquake”) until the
earthquake stops,” reports jpinfo.com.
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| Japanese kids are taught natural disaster drills from pre-kindergarten |
That is Japan’s story,
too. This tells that the Asian nation has learnt its lessons as taught by earthquakes.
Now, Japan builds resistant houses, raises awareness on disaster prevention and
trains housewives on what to do [rush to the kitchen to turn off the gas] when
disaster strikes among others.
This is what any
serious country does. They think deep and plan ahead.
Does NADMO have the
data base of persons living in areas likely to be affected by any occurrence of
an earthquake? Could it have constantly— at least once a week— sent these
persons SMS to relocate [if they could]? Could it have teamed up with radio/TV
stations to broadcast such messages as part of these media houses’ corporate
social responsibilities? Could NADMO
have sent these Ghanaians messages of what to do should the disaster occur?
Indeed, it is
heart-throbbing that NADMO does not have any strategy to ensure lives are not
lost should an earthquake strike. Please, forget about its bragging about being
prepared. Not even has the organization a relocation plan for citizens living on
the fault lines.
Should NADMO now decide
to talk about relocation plan, it must not merely be telling residents to
relocate. NADMO and government must find temporary shelter for those who cannot
afford the cost involved in relocating.
In 2015, I wrote an
opinion piece for Radio Ghana’s News
Commentary [a segment on the station’s bulletin] arguing that government
must find residents of Old Fadama a place when it made moves to eject them from
Agbobloshie. My argument was hinged on one pivotal point. That, once we [the
nation] allowed the squatters to settle at Old Fadama, it was morally right to
find them a place if we meant to eject them from the land they occupied.
Similarly, if we
allowed people to settle and build mansions at Kasoa-Nyanyanu and Weija among
other areas, NADMO and government cannot look unconcerned but help relocate
them if, indeed, there is an imminent earthquake.
Did history not tell us
that in 1615, 1636, 1862 and 1939, the then Gold Coast experienced earth
tremors? Did history, again, not tell us that the 1939 tremor claimed at least
17 lives with 133 others sustaining injuries? Did we not know from these
tremors that there are some areas in the Greater Accra Region earmarked as
‘fault line of earthquake’? Where were the Lands Commission, our chiefs and
district/municipal assemblies who gave out lands and supervised residents to build
mansions there?
Let’s assume without
admitting that the aforementioned institutions were oblivious of citizens
building on the fault line. Why did the Electricity Company of Ghana and the
Ghana Water Company Limited supply these areas with utilities? Do we not collect
tolls from businesses in that enclave?
There are a number of
ways we can, as a nation, employ to ensure that we do not lose a single soul
should an earthquake strike. I will suggest two of such.
NADMO must push for the
Ghana Geological Survey Authority [GGSA] to get state-of-the-art facilities to
monitor the situation. At least, by this, we will get real time data on how
‘angry’ the earth is to beat the unpredictability of earthquakes.
Secondly, NADMO must get
government to make the so-called affordable houses temporarily habitable for
residents living on the fault line. These houses, we know, would be the reserve
of the foot soldiers of any government in power when they are fully completed. The
ordinary Ghanaian must have a feel of it while death, so said to be urgent,
knocks on their doors.
For those who find themselves
renting in the shakeup zones, relocating might not be a big deal. But, the
question is, will it be easy for people leaving their mansions behind for
nowhere?
The earlier we solved
this puzzle, the better. Lest I forget, there is the Weija Dam in the enclave. Any occurrence of earthquake affecting
the Dam could be our customized tsunami. This is the time to harness the best
of our engineers to work things out.
NADMO, you have this
moment to redeem yourself of your gross incompetence for the sleep that lasts till
death happens!
The writer is a
broadcast journalist with Media General (TV3/3FM). Views expressed here are
solely his and do not, in anyway, reflect the editorial policy of his organization.
Email: nehusthan@yahoo.com
Twitter: @aniwaba