God forbid if a tsunami strikes Accra!

By Doris Yaa Dartey. The WatchWoman Column. February 28, 2019

Last Friday at dawn, just as the capital city of Ghana was going through the druggy motions of waking up, I set out on a drive outside Accra. The scene that really hit me was the chaos that was very evident before day-break. It was as early as 4am so there were very few people outside. But the still sleepy roadside spoke for the city of my birth. 

THE MOTLEY STUFF

The scene abounds with stuff—scattered about, lounging there in no particular order. Just stuff! These are the stuff that create that certain look of chaos. It is the kind of chaos that does not make any sense whatsoever. It is the chaos that communicates that no one truly cares. It is the overwhelming stuff that suggests that the collective elders of our big sprawling city have abandoned their responsibilities, and are laid-back in a deep slumber. It is the kind of stuff that can impact on the psyche, and cause depression. 

The stuff I witnessed presented a messy look. It comprises of our junk left behind before the city went to sleep the previous evening. But clearly, a lot of the junk have been there for so long that no one even remembers because no one tracks such things. 

The stuff includes the following assortments: make-shift funny-looking shops, tables, old lorry tyres, varied kiosks, abandoned vehicles, incomplete and obviously abandoned structures, billboards, posters, parked vehicles waiting for their drivers to wake up to be driven away, garbage piled up in heaps waiting to be collected (may be!), and a motley of other stuff. All these assorted stuff are of varying sizes, designs, colours and ages. And there is no order in their placement. Haphazardness well describes the placement of the stuff!    

The motley stuff is made up of mostly non-biodegradables like metals and plastics. I saw a few dogs, who live off the treasures of the junk. Undoubtedly, there are rats and other rodents, as well as other animals that live off the fringes of our lives—they may hide in the daytime but find their proper pride of place between sunset and daybreak. 

Accra is suffocating under all these stuff! Wherever you turn, you see stuff scattered about. Could this situation be a sign of a city that is suffering from a severe case of depression? Is Accra crying for psychological intervention? 

We have proved not to have what it takes to manage this wild urban sprawl. We need a wake-up call to empty Accra of its garbage, mess and chaos. What at all can wake us up? The June 4, 2015 flood and fire disaster, which killed more than 100 persons, and maimed and traumatized several others did not really wake us up. If the brutal flood and fire combo catastrophe could not wake Accra up, force it to learn lessons, and to fix itself, then what can? 

SOME REALITY CHECKS 

Lost in thought over the odd scenery during the drive, I observed that slowly, a few yawning human beings began to join the already chaotic but quiet reality of the Accra dawn. Then the wild thought hit me: What if a tsunami strikes! I quickly tried to get the terrifying thought out of my mind for fear that if I think it long enough, it may actually happen! And it will be my fault! The spirit of Accra will blame me for wishing it a tsunami! God forbid! 

A Japanese word, tsunami refers to a violent wave or movement under the sea, typically caused by an earthquake. When that phenomenon occurs, the sea water becomes a shaken monster and rushes toward land. Until December 2004, I had never heard of the word tsunami. I doubt if most people across the world outside the tsunami-prone areas knew of tsunami. But the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami was so violent, destructive and murderous that it immediately brought the word permanently into the global lexicon. 

The entire family of my classmate and then best friend, comprising of her mother, father and two sisters (all of whom I knew personally) died in the tsunami that struck Thailand and several countries in Asia, stretching to the coastlines of east and southern Africa. On that fateful day, my friend’s family went to the beach. The only reason my friend’s life was spared was because she had work to do so excused herself from the family fun outing, which turned into mass deaths.  

In December 2018, an earth tremor of 4.0 magnitude on the Richter scale occurred around McCarthy Hill, a known earthquake-prone zone. The Daily Graphicreported that the Acting Director of the Geological Survey Department, Dr Daniel Boamah issued this stark warning: “This minor earthquake is a warning to get us prepared for a bigger one. But when the bigger event will occur, we do not know.”Knowing us, I doubt if anyone is heeding this warning. 

So my non-technical mind is wondering if a tsunami can ever occur in Ghana given that McCarthy Hill is within the beach range and an earthquake on land could extend to the nearby Atlantic Ocean! 

If (God forbid oh – although nature does what nature wants to do!), a little tremor or a good sized earthquake occurs along our shores, Accra might be in a more than sorry state of affairs. The flood waters might make a dash onto land, push our garbage outside our sub-consciousness, and rudely rush them into our faces. We will feel the garbage before we feel the Ocean waters. 

The assorted tables, billboards, incomplete structures and kiosks we have scattered about haphazardly will all collapse into weird unrecognizable lumps. They will join together in a jarring collection of plastics, metals, wood and stuff. They will interlock, float and be pushed about into our streets, homes and water bodies. Our odd gutters will be wiped out of existence. 

THE AFTER SHOCK AND AWE

When we arise from the catastrophe, we will wonder if some prophets prophesied the tsunami. I can almost predict that in fits of lying sprees, some publicity-seeking prophets will claim that they actually prophesied the tsunami! The Meteorological Services folks will wonder why they missed it and quickly excuse themselves with the grand explanation that they have obsolete equipment. With that, procurement-crazy government people will gleefully scramble to do a multimillion-dollar procurement under a state of emergency. Of course the emergency procurement will offer opportunities for corruption as a few people will enrich themselves from the disaster. 

NADMO will be rendered useless since their own officials will flee for their lives. Power outages will be a certainty; and water will be contaminated. As garbage becomes king, air pollution will be a given. Panic attacks will set in for all as we run for dear life. But where will we run to?

dorisdartey@gmail.com