Senior Seismologist at the Ghana Geological Survey Authority Nicholas Opoku has warned city authorities of earthquake zone in Ghana to prepare for a major tremor that is yet to hit hard at the country.
According to him, though the Geographical Survey Authority “cannot say exactly when the next big one is going to happen, people should know the kind of buildings they living in whether they are vulnerable or not”.
“We know one day a bigger tremor is going to occur but we can’t say it is going to occur time soon. We have to start preparation to ensure that we are not taken by surprise”, Mr. Nicholas Opoku revealed.
He cautioned that since major tremors in the country are happening in the city centres especially where people live and there is overcrowding, it is advisable to rehabilitate buildings and demolish weaker ones to prevent future disasters that may take the country by surprise.
“What we have do is to prepare for these tremors for they are happening within the city centre especially where a lot of people have built and are making a living. If we don’t take measure to make sure buildings which are built within earthquake zones are well retrofitted; especially those which are venerable and probably those which does not fit or cannot be retrofitted”, Mr. Nicholas Opoku told the GBC radio in an interview monitored by MyNewsGH.com.
“We have to do a zone ability mapping to take stock all our building structures to categorise those which are safe and those which are not safe for people to live in to take decisions on”, he stressed
Mr. Opoku added that buildings that are too weak need to be demolished whiles others have to be retrofitted so that they become earthquake compliant.
During the week, inhabitants of some part of Greater Accra and Central Region experienced earth tremor during the night.
This is not the first time residents such areas are experiencing an earthquake. In the years 2018 and 20 19, residents also experienced three successive earthquakes.
According to experts, the foreshock happened at about 10: 48 pm at a magnitude of 3.7 followed by the mainshock with a magnitude of 4.2 at 10: 54pm and the aftershock with a magnitude of 3.5 at 10.57pm.
Currently, Ghana has only nine (9) equipment monitoring equipment, 8 of these were purchased by the Ghana government with the remaining one was a donation from the German Research Centre installed at the Achimota.
The remaining eight are located at Waija, HO, Shai Hills, Akosombo, Lake Bosemtwe, Kokrantume, Asankragua and Salt Pond.
Source: MyNewsGH.com
