By Emelia B. Addae
Somanya (E/R), Aug. 25, GNA – Ghana’s recurring flood disasters are being driven by longstanding engineering, governance, legal and socio-economic failures rather than rainfall alone, the SPEAR Institute LBG has said, urging authorities to focus on prevention instead of emergency response.
In a position statement titled “Flooding in Accra: Paddling to Safety or Avoiding a Repeat?”, the research and consultancy firm said Ghana’s flood crisis reflected decades of poor planning, weak enforcement of environmental regulations, ageing infrastructure and inadequate project management.
“Accra has been flooding since 1935. Nine decades on, the city is still asking the same question it asked then: why does the rain keep winning?” it said.
According to the institute, major floods in 1955, 1963, 1995, 2001, 2011 and 2015 exposed vulnerabilities that remain largely unresolved.
SPEAR noted that the June 2015 flood and fuel station explosion at Kwame Nkrumah Circle claimed more than 200 lives, describing it as the deadliest single flood disaster in the nation’s history.
The institute said national records attributed more than 3,000 deaths and over 700,000 displacements to flooding between 1935 and 2023, with economic losses exceeding one billion dollars.
“What has changed is not the rain alone. It is what the rain now meets: waterways narrowed by encroachment, drains sealed under concrete, wetlands built over, and a drainage network designed for a smaller, less paved city,” the statement said.
The statement identified Kaneshie, Odawna, Adabraka, Alajo and Weija among communities that continue to experience repeated flooding, which it said pointed to unresolved structural challenges rather than isolated incidents.
SPEAR also cited spillages from Burkina Faso’s Bagre Dam and Ghana’s Weija Dam, saying existing systems were not designed to effectively manage sudden inflows into downstream communities.
The institute warned that flood risks were increasingly extending beyond inundation to structural failures.
“A third layer has now emerged: structural failure under saturation,” it said, citing the collapse of a building in Accra New Town in March 2026 after heavy rains, which reportedly claimed three lives and injured 20 others.
The statement follows severe flooding recorded on June 29, 2026.
SPEAR said Ghana registered its highest monthly rainfall on record in June, recording 593.2 millimetres, surpassing the previous record of 420.6 millimetres set in 2002.
Rainfall recorded on June 29 alone measured 169.2 millimetres, the fourth-highest daily total since 1995, it added.
According to the institute, the floods claimed at least 12 lives, left seven people missing and displaced 7,761 households, affecting 38,802 people across 18 metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies.
The institute said flood-prone communities, including Kaneshie, Odawna, Adabraka, Alajo and Weija, continue to suffer repeated inundation, highlighting what it called unresolved structural problems rather than isolated events.
SPEAR also cited the impact of spillages from Burkina Faso’s Bagre Dam and Ghana’s Weija Dam, saying existing systems were not designed to coordinate sudden inflows into downstream communities.
It further warned that flood risks were increasingly extending beyond inundated streets to structural failures.
“Government has now allocated GHS350 million for relief efforts; however, the more pressing question is what will happen if similar rainfall occurs again in the near future?” SPEAR said.
“Will we once again be ‘paddling victims to safety’, or will preventive measures be sufficient to avert a repeat?”
The institute said Ghana’s flood challenge was partly rooted in poverty, inequality and financial insecurity, which limited the ability of vulnerable households to avoid flood-prone areas, invest in preventive measures and recover after disasters.
It also cited indiscriminate waste disposal as a major contributor to blocked drainage systems and worsening flood conditions.
On regulation, SPEAR argued that Ghana already had an extensive legal framework, including constitutional, environmental, land-use and local governance provisions capable of addressing flood risks.
“The problem is not the law but how people are made to answer for breaking it,” it said.
The institute observed that flood-risk assessments were often overlooked during permitting processes, allowing developments within waterways, wetlands and statutory buffer zones with minimal regulatory consequences.
It also pointed to fragmented institutional responsibilities, noting that flood management functions were spread across agencies such as the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), the Water Resources Commission (WRC), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies.
“Ghana also has no single Flood Risk Management Act; responsibility is scattered across NADMO, the WRC, the EPA, district assemblies, and others, each holding a partial mandate, non-accountable for the whole,” the statement said.
On infrastructure, SPEAR stated that Accra’s drainage systems were designed decades ago for a much smaller city and had struggled to keep pace with rapid urbanisation and changing rainfall patterns.
“The 169.2mm rainfall recorded on June 29, 2026, exceeded the design capacity of virtually all drainage infrastructure in Accra, exposing a deeper structural limitation in the city’s flood management approach,” it said.
The institute said the city’s reliance on a “drain-and-discharge” model was becoming increasingly ineffective because downstream channels were often saturated, obstructed or incapable of handling peak flows.
It added that wetlands and floodplains that once absorbed stormwater had been built over, while the Odaw River and Korle Lagoon remained constrained by encroachment, illegal structures and waste accumulation.
SPEAR also criticised project implementation practices, saying drainage and flood-control projects were frequently left unfinished, poorly supervised or handed over without maintenance plans and budgetary provisions.
“Projects are declared delivered, flood risk reduction is assumed rather than measured,” it said.
The institute called for stronger enforcement of existing laws, restoration of wetlands and floodplains, improved waste management systems, catchment-based drainage planning and sustained investment in prevention rather than disaster relief.
“We have been here before; after 2015, after each storm, we mourn, we write down what we can do, and we move on until the next disaster strikes and proves us right again,” SPEAR said.
“Rainfall is not the problem; it is the consequence of what we build, what we enforce, what we collect, and what we choose to fund only after the damage is done,” it added.
“Ghana is not short of answers. It is short of the will to act on them before the water arrives.”
GNA
Edited by D.I. Laary/Lydia Kukua Asamoah
Reporter: Emelia B. Addae
[email protected]