Ghana ranks highly among African countries that are most exposed to risks from multiple weather-related hazards.
In the past three decades, the country has experienced seven major floods. The devastating flood and fire disaster in the Odaw catchment on 3rd June 2015 led to the unfortunate loss of about 150 lives.
But despite the investment of GH₵ 450 million in the National Flood Control and Priority Drainage Programme, a World Bank $200 million spent on the Greater Accra Resilient Integrated Development Project (GARID), the Ministry of Works and Housing say they have only addressed two percent of the problem.
“If you take Greater Accra, the intervention that the Greater Accra Resilience and Integrated Development Project (GARIP) that we put in a lot of resources to be able to address the problem, we are solving only two per cent of the flooding situation in Greater Accra,” the deputy sector Minister, Dr Prince Hamid Armah said in an interview on JoyNews
According to him, addressing the drainage situation requires proper demarcation and mapping of the regional landscape, along with all the drainage systems to accurately estimate a budget for the necessary work to be done.
He added that, additional investment is needed to fix the flooding challenge, adding that government alone cannot finance it.
When asked about the allocation of the recently approved tranche of the GARID project, he explained that the additional $150 million will be partially used for re-scoping the project and settling compensations.