Picture1: John Agyei Duodu, Director of Geological Survey Department showing the old equipment. Picture2 showing the new equipment.
Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Thursday February 17, 2011.
Earth tremor hit certain parts of Accra in the early hours of but unfortunately there was no tracking devise to pinpoint the epicenter or where the tremor came from and its impact.
Residents said they were woken by the tremor between 4-4:30am in areas around Kasoa, Weija, Tantra Hills, Airport Residential Area, East Legon, Achimota among others earthquake prone areas in the city.
Accra is located within the earthquake zone and analysts are worried that no step had been taken to sensitized residents in the event of emergency situation.
To make matters worse, no seismologist could tell how yesterday’s natural happening which shook suburbs in north western parts of Accra for few seconds came about.
According to the Geological Survey Department (GSD), the country has been withou
t any useful earthquake detecting equipment for the past three years.
John Agyei Duodu confirmed to Daily Guide in Accra yesterday that there was indeed shaking of the earth but said nobody could tell where it originated from or how it happened.
He said the government last year supported the GSD to acquire digital seismic equipment which are earthquake tracking machines to replace the manual ones being used, adding “we have been operating the analogue for many years until it became defunct three years ago.”
He said they have put on tender for the construction of two-storey Seismic/Earthquake Central Observatory in the Achimota Forest, West Legon Accra saying “if the government can allow us to do single sourcing to facilitate the project, it would help us a lot.”
He said they considered Achimota Forest because there is no encroachment and frequency interference among other factors that could hinder their operations.
He said with the arrival of the new Seismic equipment, the GSD has relocated all the seven manual ones except in Kukurantumi, Eastern Region saying “we have further programmes to extend our stations to Bui, Axim and other parts of Northern Ghana.”
“Once the installation has not been complete we cannot give you what exactly happened last night. Anybody who provides information about this tremor will be doing a guess work and not based on any scientific proof.”
Mr. Duodu said that the old machine had its own problems but the news observatory center will look entirely different and provide on the spot results.
He bemoaned the lack of support for the department from the corporate sector saying “they rely on our analysis to do their explorations but they leave the government alone to shoulder our burden.”
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