A GNA feature by Regina Benneh
Sunyani, (Bono), July 4, GNA-Flooding kills many in the country annually with women and children bearing the brunt.
Checks show that recent flooding in Accra swept away and killed more than 10 persons including children.
Several others were also rescued from the floodwaters which also destroyed properties and collapsed many businesses in the national capital.
Among the rescued were pregnant women, infants and babies.
For women and children in Accra and parts of the country, rainy seasons are nightmares as presently most of the affected households of the Accra flooding perched with friends and relations.
Others also used classrooms and church buildings as shelters.
Immediate consequences of flooding
As floodwater hides dangerous edges, innocent and unsuspecting children often fall into open drains.
Some schools are often forced to close, sometimes for months when school compounds turn into lakes.
That obstructed learning and denied innocent children accessing quality education.
Sometimes children and women suffer from diseases and infections like Cholera, typhoid, and diarrhea.
In fact, pregnant women also faced life-threatening dangers, as floodwaters washed away their antenatal cards, monies, and prescribed drugs.
Stress, cold floodwater, and lack of clean delivery spaces raise the risk of miscarriages, infections in pregnancy and increase the risk of maternal deaths.
Many affected pregnant women and nursing mothers are often left with no other option than to sleep on bare floors, exposing them to mosquito bites.
According to health experts, malaria in pregnancy causes anemia and low birth weight.
Consequences of flooding displacement
Displacement because of flooding strips families of privacy and protection.
Women and girls who used and shared overcrowded classrooms and church buildings are often expose to high risk of sexual harassment and assaults because of poor security.
There are also no private spaces for them to change, bath, or manage their menstruation.
In fact, women and girls mostly bear the brunt of flooding as contaminated water and waste expose them to skin infections and reproductive health problems.
System failure
According to the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) flooding displaced more than 35,000 persons in the country in 2025.
Areas which used to be safe in Accra are no longer safe as some streets in Alajo, Kaneshie, and East Legon that stayed dry for years are often inundated.
Drains often overflowed within minutes after rains as floodwater could not run through gutters due to poor drainage systems because of indiscriminate dumping of plastic materials and waste into gutters.
In Accra’s popular Odaw River, plastic waste has blocked water channels as traders throw refuse directly into drains that run into the river.
It is unfortunate that some structures and buildings stand in waterways.
Estate developers are also taking over wetlands and lagoons with houses, shops, and fuel stations directly sitting on waterways.
Further checks show that the Sakumo Lagoon in Tema and the Kpeshie Lagoon in Accra have lost over 40 percent of their natural size to encroachment.
Unfortunately, many communities in the country lacked good drainage systems with shallow, narrow and poorly connected existing drains, and that is evidenced in the creation of stagnant pools.
Climate change
The rainfall pattern in the country has now changed partly due to climate change as the nation now records shorter, but more intense rainfall.
Checks reveal that Accra now experiences 60mm to 80mm rainfall in two hours, a volume that used to fall over a full day.
Urban temperatures are higher due to loss of trees and the spread of concrete and excessive heat and hot air hold more moisture and release it as violent storms.
According to the Ghana Meteorological Agency, the nation recorded a 12 percent increase in extreme rainfall events between 2010 and 2025 with the nation recording heaviest rains now.
Laws without action keep omen at risk
By-laws against dumping refuse in drains existed, however their enforcement remains a daunting challenge across the country.
Sadly, people dump waste with impunity.
Because of the growing demand in housing, landlords rent out structures built on waterways and flood prone areas.
Mr George Akroma, a resident in Sunyani, noted that: “The same excuses are often given every year while women and children suffer from the consequences of flooding”.
“Why should our leaders wait for disaster to happen before they act”? He questioned and called on the various Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to enforce environmental laws.
Mr Akroma also called on the Ghana Meteorological Agency to send area-specific flood alerts via SMS and intensify public awareness creation on the airwaves for the public to take precautionary measures before a downpour sets-in.
He urged the Town and Country Planning unit of the MMADs to mark all waterways with red zones to prevent people from putting structure at those places, calling on the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority to enforce building regulations.
Mr Akroma called on traditional authorities to also refrain from selling wetland as building plots.
Waiting for disaster isn’t a leadership
In fact, we need to take the bull by the horn because deaths from flooding is not an act of nature alone.
That partly happened due to blocked drains, buildings in waterways, and poor planning.
It seems as a nation we did not learn lessons from the June 3, 2015 disaster which happened in Accra and claimed about 150 lives.
From that period, similar deaths recur annually.
In fact, more than 10 precious lives lost in the recent Accra flooding was needless and preventable.
Considering the level of destruction, solving the flooding problem is essential rather than bringing emergency reliefs.
There is therefore the need for the nation to re-think and design proper drainage systems and enforce her environmental laws.
Prevention, health experts say, is better than cure.
Nonetheless, flood and related disaster prevention require political will, and the nation ought to take pragmatic measures to respond to and address the recurrent flooding in the country.
Dr Godfred Owusu Ansah, medical practitioner in Sunyani, warned about the consequences of flooding which often led to health implications evidenced in physical injuries, emotional trauma, and even deaths.
“Cholera spreads when floodwater contaminates drinking sources”, he stated, saying that children under five and pregnant women were often vulnerable because their immunities were weaker.
Dr Owusu Ansah noted that stagnant water bred breeding mosquitoes and that contributed to high cases of malaria, adding that malaria in pregnancy contributed to anemia, premature birth, and low birth weight.
He added that: “People are trapped in water for hours and they experience a dangerous drop in body temperature”.
GNA
Edited by Dennis Peprah/Kenneth Odeng Adade
Writer: Regina Benneh
[email protected]