The recurring flooding that has devastated communities across Ghana cannot be blamed on heavy rainfall alone, the SPEAR Institute LBG has said, arguing that poor urban planning, weak enforcement and inadequate infrastructure have turned heavy downpours into national disasters.
The research and consultancy firm said Ghana’s approach to flooding had remained largely reactive, with authorities frequently mobilising resources after disasters instead of addressing the structural conditions that make communities vulnerable.
In a position statement titled “Flooding in Accra: Paddling to Safety or Avoiding a Repeat?”, SPEAR said decades of unplanned development, encroachment on waterways and wetlands, poor waste management and weak project supervision had compounded the country’s flood risk.
The institute noted that Accra had experienced major flooding since 1935, with significant events recorded in 1955, 1963, 1995, 2001, 2011 and 2015.
It said the persistence of flooding in communities such as Kaneshie, Odawna, Adabraka, Alajo and Weija demonstrated that successive interventions had failed to resolve the underlying problems.
SPEAR described the June 2015 flood and fuel station explosion at Kwame Nkrumah Circle, which claimed more than 200 lives, as a major warning that had not produced sufficient long-term reforms.
According to the institute, national records indicate that flooding between 1935 and 2023 resulted in more than 3,000 deaths and over 700,000 displacements, with economic losses exceeding US$1 billion.
June floods expose infrastructure gaps
The institute said the severe floods recorded on June 29, 2026, again exposed the limitations of Accra’s drainage infrastructure.
Ghana recorded 593.2 millimetres of rainfall in June, its highest monthly rainfall on record, exceeding the previous record of 420.6 millimetres recorded in 2002.
Rainfall on June 29 alone reached 169.2 millimetres, which SPEAR said was the fourth-highest daily rainfall recorded since 1995.
The resulting floods reportedly claimed at least 12 lives, left seven people missing and displaced 7,761 households, affecting about 38,802 people across 18 metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies.
SPEAR said the intensity of the rainfall was significant, but the devastation was worsened by the condition of the city’s drainage network and the loss of natural flood-control areas.
It said Accra’s drainage systems were designed for a much smaller and less densely paved city and had not kept pace with rapid urbanisation or changing rainfall patterns.
According to the institute, the 169.2 millimetres recorded on June 29 exceeded the design capacity of virtually all drainage infrastructure in the capital.
It warned that reliance on a traditional “drain-and-discharge” approach was becoming increasingly ineffective because downstream channels could themselves be obstructed or overwhelmed during periods of intense rainfall.
Encroachment and waste worsening flood risk
SPEAR identified the destruction of wetlands and floodplains as another major contributor to the problem.
It said areas that previously absorbed excess stormwater had increasingly been converted for construction, while the Odaw River and Korle Lagoon continued to face pressure from encroachment, illegal structures and waste accumulation.
The institute also cited indiscriminate disposal of waste as a major factor in the blockage of drains and waterways.
It argued that the challenge was therefore not simply the amount of rain Ghana received, but what the rainfall encountered when it reached increasingly urbanised communities.
SPEAR also raised concerns about sudden inflows from the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso and the Weija Dam in Ghana, arguing that existing systems were not adequately designed to manage such inflows and protect downstream communities.
The institute warned that flood-related risks were also beginning to extend beyond inundation to structural failures.
It cited the collapse of a building at Accra New Town in March 2026 following heavy rains, which reportedly killed three people and injured 20 others, as an indication of the wider dangers posed by water saturation and weak structures.
Laws exist but enforcement remains weak
SPEAR said Ghana already had several constitutional, environmental, land-use and local government laws capable of addressing many aspects of flood risk.
The problem, it argued, was the weak enforcement of those laws.
“The problem is not the law but how people are made to answer for breaking it,” the institute said.
It said flood-risk assessments were frequently overlooked during development permitting, allowing construction within waterways, wetlands and statutory buffer zones.
The institute also criticised the fragmented nature of flood management, saying responsibilities were spread among the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Water Resources Commission, Environmental Protection Agency and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies.
It called for a more coordinated system in which responsibility for flood-risk management was clearly defined and measurable.
Shift resources from relief to prevention
SPEAR welcomed government’s allocation of GH¢350 million for relief efforts, but questioned whether sufficient resources were being committed to preventing another disaster.
It asked what would happen if rainfall of similar intensity occurred again in the near future.
The institute said Ghana’s flood vulnerability was also linked to poverty and financial insecurity, which prevented many households from relocating from high-risk areas or investing in measures that could protect their properties.
It therefore called for flood prevention to become a sustained national investment rather than an emergency response activated after disasters.
Among its recommendations were the restoration of wetlands and floodplains, stronger enforcement of planning and environmental laws, improved waste management, catchment-based drainage planning and sustained investment in drainage infrastructure.
SPEAR also called for better project management, arguing that drainage projects were sometimes left unfinished, poorly supervised or completed without adequate maintenance plans and funding.
It said the effectiveness of flood-control projects should be measured by their ability to reduce flood risk rather than simply by their completion.
The institute warned that without a fundamental change in approach, Ghana could continue repeating the same cycle of disaster, relief and recovery.
It said the country had sufficient knowledge of the causes of flooding and many of the solutions required, but needed stronger political and institutional commitment to implement preventive measures before the next major rainfall event.
