When will we end the annual flood tragedy?

Every rainy season, Ghanaians brace themselves for what has become a familiar and heart-breaking ritual. Dark clouds gather, the rains begin, drains overflow, roads become rivers, homes are submerged, businesses grind to a halt, and families mourn the loss of loved ones. The headlines change only in their dates; the story remains the same. We sympathize with victims, assess the damage, make promises, and then wait for the next rainy season to repeat the cycle.

This is no longer merely a natural disaster. It is a national planning challenge that demands permanent solutions.

The recent public discussions on flooding have once again drawn national attention to an issue that has plagued Ghana for decades. Yet, unless these discussions lead to bold policy decisions and coordinated action, they will become just another seasonal conversation.

While Accra often dominates the national discourse because of its economic significance, the flooding crisis extends far beyond the capital. Communities along the White Volta Basin—from the Upper East Region through the Northern and Savanna Regions—experience devastating floods almost every year. Thousands of families lose their homes, fertile farmlands are washed away, schools and health facilities are damaged, roads become impassable, and livelihoods painstakingly built over many years disappear within hours.

This recurring destruction should never be accepted as an unavoidable act of nature. Many countries experience heavier rainfall than Ghana, yet have significantly reduced flood disasters through sound engineering, effective urban planning, environmental protection, and the consistent enforcement of development regulations. Ghana can do the same if we shift from reactive interventions to longterm planning.

The periodic desilting of drains by city authorities is necessary and deserves commendation. However, desilting alone cannot solve a problem that has become increasingly complex. Today’s flooding results from rapid urbanisation, indiscriminate construction on waterways and wetlands, inadequate drainage infrastructure, poor waste management, shrinking natural floodplains, and weak enforcement of planning laws. Addressing only one of these factors is simply treating the symptoms rather than the disease.

What Ghana urgently requires is a comprehensive national flood management strategy.

One institution that deserves a more prominent role is the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA). For decades, GIDA has accumulated valuable expertise in water resource management, hydraulic engineering, irrigation systems, and earthworks. If government intends to construct retention ponds, flood-control reservoirs, dugouts, or other water-retention infrastructure in lowlying areas of Accra and elsewhere, GIDA should be a principal technical partner.

Its expertise should be complemented by the Engineering Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces, the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), hydrologists, civil engineers, urban planners, environmental scientists, metropolitan and municipal assemblies, universities, and research institutions. Flood management should not be the responsibility of one ministry or agency. It requires a coordinated national effort.

Government must also demonstrate the political courage to enforce planning regulations without fear or favour. Buildings erected on waterways, wetlands, and floodplains continue to endanger lives and property every rainy season. Their removal should be viewed not as punitive action but as a necessary measure to safeguard communities and restore the integrity of our natural drainage systems.

Future urban development must equally embrace climate-resilient planning. The replacement of vegetation and permeable surfaces with extensive concrete has dramatically increased storm water runoff. Encouraging permeable paving materials, preserving wetlands, protecting green spaces, and integrating sustainable urban drainage systems into new developments would significantly reduce flood risks while improving environmental resilience.

Citizens also have an indispensable role to play. No engineering intervention can succeed if drains continue to serve as refuse dumps. Plastic waste and other debris continue to choke our drainage systems. Public education must therefore be intensified, while sanitation and environmental laws are enforced consistently. Flood prevention is a shared responsibility between government and every Ghanaian.

The discussion would be incomplete without mentioning the strategic importance of the Pwalugu

Multipurpose Dam Project. One of its key objectives was to harness excess water from the White Volta to mitigate downstream flooding while supporting irrigation, agriculture, and electricity generation. For communities within the White Volta Basin, the project represented hope for a safer and more prosperous future.

Regrettably, that promise remains unrealised. Ghanaians deserve a transparent explanation for why such an important national project has stalled. Critical infrastructure projects of this nature should transcend partisan politics because floods do not discriminate. They affect all Ghanaians regardless of political affiliation, ethnicity, religion, or social status.

The annual flooding of our communities should never become an accepted feature of national life. Every flood that destroys homes, claims lives, interrupts education, and weakens economic activity reminds us that we have not yet fully addressed a challenge we know how to solve.

The expertise exists. The institutions exist. The technology exists. What remains is the political will to bring these capacities together under a coherent national strategy.

The rains will come again. The only question is whether Ghana will once again count its losses or finally demonstrate that it has learned from them.

By: DZATSE K. Anthony

Voice from Afar in the Service of Humanity.

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