Scale up tremor, quake education – Amamoo-Otchere

This is the fourth tremor experienced within a space of two years

The Ghanaian authorities must increase their education of the citizenry on earth tremors and earthquakes in order to mitigate fatalities and damages should there be a devastating quake, Professor Emmanuel Amamoo-Otchere, a former Executive Director of the Centre for Geographical Information Service, has said.

According to the consultant in Geospatial Information for Environmental Impact Assessment and Environmental and Social Action Planning of Sustainable Community, the recurrence of earth tremors in some parts of the capital, Accra, is a harbinger of a major earthquake.

Three earth tremors hit parts of Accra late Saturday night.

Residents in areas such as Gbawe, Sowutuom, Old Kasoa Barrier, New Bortianor, Awoshie, Abelemkpe, Tabora, Achimota, Ablekuma, Kisseman, Westlands, Laterbiokorshie, Legon and McCarthy Hills felt the ground shake vigorously around 11:30 p.m.

This is the fourth tremor experienced within a space of two years.

Speaking in an interview with Kwabena Prah Jnr (The Don) on Ghana Yensom on Accra100.5FM on Monday, 4 March 2019, Prof Amamoo-Otchere said: “Relocating the people from the affected areas is not the solution to the problem. All we need is to sensitize the public and scale up education on how to protect ourselves from serious earthquakes.”

“Building engineers need to factor in measures to enable the buildings to withstand tremors or earthquakes,” he added.

Meanwhile, the National Public Relations Officer of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr. George Ayisi said the organization has started sensitizing the public on disaster management in general.

He said last year a simulation exercise was carried out to ascertain the preparedness of Ghanaians in handling such disasters.