In June, last year,an earthquake occurred in the country and the Ghana Geological Survey Authority (GGSA) described it as a signal of an imminent earthquake of greater magnitude.
Following that, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in April this year, directed the Ministry of Works and Housing to take an audit of public buildings and other facilities, including the Jubilee House, Osu Castle and Parliament House, Akosombo and Bui dams, as part of efforts to build the country’s resilience to earthquakes of higher magnitude.
The directive was appropriate because since 1615 Ghana has been experiencing earthquakes, withthree damaging ones occurring in 1862, 1906, and 1939.
The 1939 one, recording a magnitude of 6.5 on the Richter scale, was the severest, which killed 17 people and caused significant damage to property in Accra.
With this record in mind, coupled with the inconsistency of the intervals of occurrences of the quakes, any action needed to be taken by way of preparation to avert serious damage and unimaginable number of casualties must not be delayed.
Currently, the Engineering Council says following its commissioning by the ministry to assess the situation, it has a report on what can be done but for three months now, it has been waiting for the green light from the government to start work.
The Ghanaian Times, therefore, wishes to appeal to the government that even though due diligence is the watch word in all public matters, especially where money would be spent, it should not allow bureaucracy to unduly delay the audit.
It is good news that earthquakes themselves do not kill, according to the Council, but collapsing structures cancause human and economic losses.
If so, then the audit is urgently needed to ascertain which of the public structures are already earthquake-resistant and which ones need reinforcement to become resistant.
A related issue of relevance is that the Council says if the government gives the go-ahead for the audit to begin, the pilot in the Greater Accra Region would take four months to complete; three months for fieldwork and a month for data analysis.
If this is anything to go by, it would take quite a time to audit public structures in the 16 regions of the country before willing private property owners can even apply to be considered for the audit of their facilities.
The truth is that without the timely action(s) for earthquake resilience and response, should a serious one occur, more people can die as there are more people and structures in even just Accra than there were in 1939.
The move to make Ghana earthquake-resistant is a very good one but needs to be treated with all seriousness, which means that henceforth, the works departments of the district assemblies should up their game by ensuring that all new structures are earthquake-resistant.
The post Earthquake preparedness is an urgent issue appeared first on Ghanaian Times.
Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS