By Emelia B. Addae
Somanya (E/R), Aug 25, GNA – The SPEAR Institute LBG has called for a fundamental overhaul of Accra’s drainage planning, saying the city’s current flood management system is outdated and unable to cope with rising urbanisation and increasingly intense rainfall.
In a position statement on flooding in Accra, the institute, which is research and consultancy firm, said the 169.2mm rainfall recorded on June 29, 2026, exceeded the design capacity of virtually all drainage infrastructure in the capital, exposing major weaknesses in the city’s flood-control strategy.
“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,” SPEAR said.
The institute said Accra’s drainage system was designed decades ago for a smaller population and less intense rainfall, arguing that planners had largely reacted to growth rather than preparing for it.
“Undoubtedly, planners of Accra have never planned for the city it was becoming; they only reacted to the one it already was,” it said.
According to the SPEAR, the prevailing engineering approach focuses on moving stormwater rapidly downstream through a “drain-and-discharge” system, but that model is increasingly failing because downstream channels are often saturated, obstructed or unable to handle peak flows.
The institute said wetlands and floodplains that once absorbed stormwater have been built over. At the same time, key waterways such as the Odaw River and Korle Lagoon have been narrowed by encroachment, illegal structures and waste.
The SPEAR said flooding should not be viewed solely because of human indiscipline but as a structural mismatch between Accra’s current hydrological realities and ageing infrastructure.
“Flooding in Accra should not be understood solely as a consequence of human indiscipline. Rather, it reflects a structural mismatch between the city’s current hydrological reality and an engineering system that appears to be outdated,” it said.
The institute called for a shift away from rapid-drainage systems towards integrated water management that retains, slows and manages rainfall closer to where it falls.
“We advocate for a transition to a source-control philosophy in which rainfall is retained, infiltrated, slowed, and managed close to where it falls, through Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS), nature-based solutions, and the restoration of natural retention capacity,” the SPEAR said.
It said the shift would require changes to design standards, planning regulations, procurement practices and the way drainage infrastructure is financed and valued.
The institute also urged government to restore and protect wetlands and floodplains, expand urban water retention systems and adopt catchment-level drainage planning rather than planning projects along individual streets or assembly boundaries.
“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,” SPEAR said.
“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/Benjamin Mensah