Demolition of unauthorised structures not solution to flooding-Dr Baffour

Accra, June 22, GNA - Dr Robert Awuah Baffour, Vice President of Gha na Telecom University College (GTUC), on Tuesday said demolition of houses built on water-ways was just an ad-hoc measure but not solution to the perennial flooding of some parts of the country. He said the flooding would continue to persist unless all institutio ns began to adhere to quality assurance procedures and regulations.

Dr Baffour made the observation at a day's workshop on Quality Assurance and Quality Control, organised by authorities of GTUC in collaboration with management of Godson Tetteh Ventures in Accra. The topic was: "Understanding Quality Assurance and Quality Control" .. The workshop, under the theme; "Quality - A tool for increased efficiency and reduced cost", was to enable participants have basic understanding of the benefits and requirements of a proper quality assura nce process. It would also enable the participants to begin to incorporate qualit y assurance and quality control into the business process. Dr Baffour blamed the current floods that had engulfed parts of the country on the failure of authorities to adhere to quality assurance procedures in the construction of infrastructure.

He said even though quality assurance procedures had been addressed in the designs of roads network in the country, the actual construction alwa ys failed to observe such procedures, with the excuse of inadequate culverts to control running water. Dr Baffour said all institutions had quality assurance procedures an d regulations but most of them did not implement such regulations leading t o sub-standard performance, which in the long-run, affected their fortunes. "The intermittent power outages by Electricity Company of Ghana, lac k of flow of water from Ghana Water Company Limited, recent oil spillage by British Petroleum (BP) and issues of brake failure of Toyota Prius car by Toyota Company, were all issues of quality assurance," he said. Dr Baffour suggested that government should take control of developm ent of new towns and settlements, and build homes on-lease for the people to curb the haphazard siting of unauthorised structures on water-ways, to prevent the perennial flooding that had been causing havoc in society. He said there should be infrastructure to transport rain water to a point which would not create problems for the people, and called on government to "crack down" on institutions that compromised on quality assurance procedures. 22 June 10