LET US OFFER OUR MORAL SUPPORT TO DISTRICT ASSEMBLY OFFICIALS DEMOLISHING BUILDINGS BLOCKING NATURAL DRAINAGE SYSTEMS

The recent rains reminded one of the fact that during the dry season, the flash floods that usually inundate and devastate a number of residential areas across Ghana, during the annual rains, quickly become a distant memory for many urban dwellers.

And this being Ghana, a nation in which the long-term outlook, seldom features in the thought processes of many, when local authorities - on whom during the rainy season so much abuse is heaped, when floods occur and lives are lost, scores of homes flooded out, whiles streets are turned into rivers: with the poor souls being villified at every turn in urban Ghana, for not pulling down houses built illegally on watercourses - finally move, as the annual rains cease, to tackle the demolishing of properties obstructing natural drainage systems, the same public that condemned them for not pulling down illegal structures built on watercourses, then perversely sympathise with those who own those illegally constructed buildings.


Thus emboldened, those law-defying individuals then take to fighting a desperate no-holds-barred rearguard action - courting public sympathy - to frustrate those selfsame district-level local government officials.

A key weapon in the armoury of those defiant individuals, is their mastery of the art and science of mendacity. It has enabled them milk public sympathy in the most ruthless of fashions.

Some have the nous to elicit the support of sections of the media, to spin endless hard-luck stories - which conveniently omit to mention the fact that they consistently ignored official warnings to stop building their properties, whiles they were being put up.

To enable them get away with the consequences of their total disregard for Ghana's building and planning regulations, some of them have even resorted to the law courts - and are manipulating the legal system to frustrate those working hard to ensure that as much of the natural drainage system, as is possible, is restored, in time for the start of the annual rains.

And unbelievably, some of them have even claimed on occasion, that they are the victims of party political witch hunting - and are being punished for belonging to the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP). Wonders.

Needless to say, were the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to be in opposition today, they would doubtless claim to be NDC members being victimised by the party in power.

Surely, the time has now come for decent and law-abiding citizens in our country, to elect to fully support district level officials, who are currently working hard across the country, pulling down properties blocking watercourses - to ensure that for the greater good of society, those who defy Ghana's building and planning regulations, are not allowed to continue causing such terrible harm to law-abiding Ghanaians who suffer terribly during the annual rains?

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