The Deputy CEO of the Forestry Commission, Elikem Kotoko, has urged authorities to remove all unauthorised buildings blocking drains without hesitation, saying politics should never take priority over saving lives from floods.
Speaking on Channel One TV’s Breakfast Daily on Monday, July 6, Kotoko endorsed the government’s move to task the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) with leading post-flood cleanup, calling it a needed step.
He added that officials must also deal with the underlying causes of the repeated flooding. He noted that the June 29 floods, which killed more than 13 people and impacted over 7,000 homes, should be a wake-up call to enforce planning and environmental rules nationwide.
“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 that it should not happen again,” he said.
Mr Kotoko stressed that people who have put up buildings on waterways or engaged in actions that breach environmental and planning laws must face the law equally.
He also downplayed fears that pulling down illegal structures could lead to political fallout, arguing that saving lives matters more than votes. “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,” Mr Kotoko added.
His remarks come as the Ghana Armed Forces gets set to head a nationwide post-flood recovery and sanitation drive. Officials say buildings wrongly sited on watercourses and drainage reserves may be pulled down during the operation.
In a briefing on Friday, July 3, the Director General of Joint Operations for the Ghana Armed Forces, Brigadier General Forster Okae-Yeboah, said the military has been assigned to coordinate the exercise as part of a wider government flood control plan to rehabilitate impacted areas and avert future disasters.
