The rains are in again, exposing the perennial deficiencies in our infrastructure to contain flooding in the country.
An 18th April 1960 edition of the Daily Graphic is making the rounds online after torrential rains on Sunday evening submerged homes, vehicles, and key roads across Accra. The resurfacing of this decades-old newspaper headline is not only symbolic; it is a tragic reminder of our national failure to deal with an issue that has haunted us for over six decades. The 1960 story reported the inability of our city infrastructure to handle the rains, and in 2025, the situation remains virtually unchanged.
What has Ghana done in all these years to deal with flooding? The answer, unfortunately, is very little. Despite the millions of taxpayers’ money pumped into drainage projects, the construction of so-called storm drains, and the formation of numerous inter-ministerial committees on sanitation and flooding, the problem persists with dogged consistency.
Each time the rains last for even an hour, we can predict, with disturbing accuracy, the places that will be flooded. Odawna, Kaneshie, Achimota, Nima, Circle, and parts of East Legon will be flooded. Homes will be lost. Lives may be lost. Roads will become rivers. And officials will promise action that never comes.
This depressing cycle of flooding and inaction reflects a broader national problem, leadership failure. We vote for people, not because of their competence, their vision, or their commitment to solving our everyday problems, but as a ritual-a civic duty that has been reduced to partisanship and ethnic considerations. And those who are voted into office often prioritise political expediency over public interest.
Why is it that Ghana, with its wealth of engineering graduates, town planners, architects, and urban development experts, cannot build a city that can withstand rain? Why have we normalised mediocrity so much that we even plan our daily routines around the certainty of floods once the skies darken? The answer lies in the fact that successive governments have failed to treat urban planning as a serious national priority. The enforcement of building codes is lax, drainage systems are either choked or non-existent, and lands earmarked for water flow and buffer zones have been sold off to the political class.
Moreover, environmental degradation and the indiscriminate disposal of plastic waste, have compounded the problem. Gutters are clogged with sachet water wrappers, polythene bags, and domestic waste. Yet, our waste management systems remain grossly inadequate and largely reactive.
The issue is no longer about whether floods will occur, but how many lives and properties will be lost when they do. This is unacceptable. We must stop treating flooding as an act of God and start treating it for what it is,a result of poor planning, weak enforcement, and dereliction of duty.
Accra is not the only city affected, but it is the most visible example of how planning failure has real consequences. Kumasi, Takoradi, Tamale, and other regional capitals are not far behind in terms of flood risk. If we do not act decisively, the rains will keep coming, and each time they do, they will wash away not just roads and homes, but also any claim we have to progress and development.
The time for reports and committees is over. What Ghana needs now is action. We owe it to the victims of past floods. We owe it to future generations. We owe it to ourselves.
