Thursday, 27th March, 2025
Hon Jerry Ahmed Shaib
Weija-Gbawe
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for granting me this opportunity. Mr Speaker, I have a Statement with reference to flooding in Weija-Gbawe and Greater Accra as a whole.
Mr Speaker, I stand before this House to draw the attention of the House to the growing and urgent issue of flooding in my Constituency, Weija-Gbawe, which continues to have a devastating impact on our people, infrastructure and livelihood. The issue of poor drainage systems, inadequate roads, and recurrent floods has worsened the living conditions of our residents, and it is high time that we, as a Parliament, found meaningful solutions to address these challenges.
Mr Speaker, flooding in Greater Accra has become an annual occurrence, and it is increasingly clear that the current measures being implemented are not sufficient to address the root causes of the problem. It is no longer just an inconvenience, but a threat to public safety and economic stability. The situation calls for urgent action, not only to mitigate the effects of flooding, but to prevent it from recurring in the future. We must acknowledge that the causes of flooding are multifaceted, including inadequate drainage systems, encroachments on waterways, poor waste management, and the lack of effective urban planning. The population of Greater Accra is growing at an alarming rate, and the demand for housing and infrastructure has put immense pressure on our city’s ability to manage rainfall and runoff. This calls for a comprehensive and strategic approach to flood management.
Mr Speaker, in particular, I must highlight the situation in Kele, a community in my Constituency, WeijaGbawe, where more than 60 homes have been submerged by the rising waters during heavy rainfall and the tidal waves. The residents of these areas have been left to grapple with the destruction of their homes, loss of personal belongings, and the long-term effects on their health and well-being. It is heart-wrenching to witness these families suffer due to inadequate drainage infrastructure that fails to manage the increasing rainfall volumes.
Mr Speaker, each time it rains, I find myself, along with my team, moving through the Constituency to assess the damage, check on the victims, and offer support where possible. This has become a recurring situation, as our people constantly face the uncertainty of their homes being submerged or damaged. These floods also significantly affect vital infrastructure, including schools, roads, and essential services, which are disrupted, further hindering the progress of the Constituency.
Mr Speaker, the consequences of these floods extend far beyond the immediate physical damage. The disruption of educational activities has severely impacted our children’s access to quality education. Our schools are often inundated, forcing them to close or delay classes. Roads, already in a dilapidated state, become impassable, further isolating residents from accessing basic services. The already fragile health systems are put under further pressure, and household goods are destroyed, causing severe financial strain on the affected families.
Mr Speaker, I urge this honorable House, in collaboration with relevant Ministries, to prioritise the upgrading of our drainage systems, the construction of storm drains and proper roads, and the implementation of flood management solutions in Weija-Gbawe and Greater Accra as a whole. It is imperative that the Government takes immediate action to avert further destruction, and this is a humble prayer, for us to avoid loss of lives, and long-term displacement of our people.
Mr Speaker, it is high time we recognised the need for long-term solutions. The following measures should be prioritised to effectively control flooding as we approach the rainy season. First, we need to upgrade and expand drainage systems. Many of the current drainage systems in Greater Accra are outdated and inefficient. It is crucial that we invest in the expansion and modernisation of these systems to handle the volume of water during heavy rains especially storm drains running from Old Barrier to Bortianor and the construction of the sea defence at Kele, where they are experiencing serious tidal waves. The construction of these new drainage channels, alongside the rehabilitation of existing ones, must be a priority.
Mr Speaker, there is the need to have improved waste management. Solid waste, particularly plastic, is a significant contributor to flooding as it blocks drains and watercourses. We must prioritise efficient waste collection, proper disposal of waste, and public education on the importance of keeping our environment clean. The National Sanitation Day initiative, though commendable, must be scaled up and made more effective.
Mr Speaker, we also need to take into consideration, public awareness campaigns. It is essential to educate citizens about the causes of flooding and how they can contribute to mitigating its effects. Public awareness campaigns should emphasise the importance of keeping drains clear of debris, the consequences of illegal building practices, and the importance of proper waste disposal.
Mr Speaker, we also need to collaboration with local government authorities. The Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA), the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) and the various district assemblies must play a more active role in flood prevention efforts. There needs to be better coordination between central government agencies and local authorities to implement flood control measures more effectively.
Mr Speaker, there is a need to invest in sustainable urban planning. The Government must work with urban planners to develop a long-term vision for Greater Accra that includes sustainable development practices, effective waste management, and flood control measures. Planning for future infrastructure must take into account the growing population and the changing climate.
Mr Speaker, while I commend the efforts made by this Government and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) thus far, it is clear that these efforts need to be intensified and expanded. If we do not take immediate and decisive action now, we will continue to face the devastating consequences of flooding year after year. I also call for an urgent intervention in providing relief to the victims of these floods, particularly in Kele, WeijaGbawe, Wiaboman, and other affected areas.
Mr Speaker, we also need some financial aid, rebuilding homes, and repairing of damaged infrastructure. The people of Weija-Gbawe have suffered for far too long, and it is time we take the necessary steps to restore dignity and safety to our communities.
Mr Speaker, let this be a call to action, a call for leadership, a call for commitment, and collaboration to address this pressing issue. The time to act is now. We owe it to the people of Greater Accra to ensure that they are protected from the devastating effects of flooding, now and in the future. Mr Speaker,
I thank you for this opportunity.
Hon Charles Asuako Owiredu
Abirem
Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Statement made by my able Leader.
It is clear that flooding has been one of the major causes of some of the displacements that we see in Ghana. One of the main Government agencies that should be called to respond to the causes of flooding in Ghana is the Ghana Meteorological Agency.
Mr Speaker, the Ghana Meteorological Agency is mandated to be the first response in terms of alerting us as to the weather changes and patterns in the country, but what do we see? They are inundated with a lot of challenges. One of their core mandates is to forecast the weather to be able to tell us as and when it would rain, so that people would take that cautionary move when they are travelling or putting up their properties somewhere; they would know what to do. Inadequate funding has been a bane in Ghana.
Recently, as a Committee, we met the Ghana Meteorological Agency and they told us some of the challenges they face and one is allocations. They claim that they do not have enough resources to be able to even go around the country and educate the populace when some of these occurrences are about to happen. Again, they said that some of the equipment they use are outmoded and that they need retooling.
Mr Speaker, if you are not able to retool the Ghana Meteorological Agency really well or properly, then they will not be able to tell us as and when rains will come for people to take the necessary measures to avoid some of the challenges or the situations that the Member had enumerated. They also claimed that there are shortages of the synoptic weather stations and that they need to establish a lot of these synoptic weather stations across the country.
Mr Speaker, I would wish that the Finance Ministry makes extra allocation to the Ghana Meteorological Agency to be able to perform the roles that have been assigned to them.
Mr Speaker, in concluding, once we do this, then they will be able to play their role, then the citizens will also be able to take advantage of the responsibilities, and a lot of the displacements that are associated with the flooding will cease.
Mr Speaker, that said, I want to thank the maker of this Statement and then hope that the right things are done. Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Hon Fred Kwesi Agbenyo
Guan
Mr Speaker, thank you very much for the opportunity to contribute to this Statement made by the Hon Member.
Mr Speaker, I think that flooding is a major problem, not only in the Ghanaian society, but across the globe. And if Hon Members look at the issue of flooding very closely, Mr Speaker, they will agree with me that there are two main causes. One is a natural cause that we can do very little about, but the ones that we experience, especially in our part of the country, I think that it is largely based on our own negligence, our own inability to plan very well and put the right structures in place. That is why we are experiencing the kind of things we are experiencing.
Inasmuch as I sympathise with the Hon Member about what is happening in his constituency, Mr Speaker, those of us who live in the national capital can attest to the fact that any time it rains, sometimes, it rains for barely 15 minutes and the havoc that follows thereafter, is not an easy thing.
Mr Speaker, I am surprised as to why up till now, as a nation, we are still constructing these shallow drains and we do not even cover the drains, so the drains easily get choked when it rains. And it is as if we are not doing anything about it. Any time one drives around or walks around their community, they will see new drains coming up, and one would have thought that by now, we would take a cue from it and do what others are doing.
Mr Speaker, anybody who attended school at the University of Ghana, Legon, will attest to the fact that at Legon, the drains that were constructed several decades ago, when one goes in there, there are about three layers. There is a first layer, a sieve, and another layer that moves water from campus all the way to where the Golf House area is. So when it rains on campus, within a few hours, the whole place is dry and one will hardly see flooding. But in this day and age, Mr Speaker, even when new communities are coming up, we do not plan well and the drainage system is not well kept.
Mr Speaker, if we take a look at the Odaw River, a major river that is supposed to serve even a useful purpose in the community, when one gets close to it, the only thing they will see is dirt and the whole river is choked. It cannot even take additional water to be able to move it into the sea. So, this is an issue that we need to pay particular attention to. We need to call on all the agencies and institutions that have the responsibility to take care of our planning and ensure that our drains are desilted very well to allow the free flow of water to continue.
Mr Speaker, it rained two days ago when we closed from here; I was going home. Just after the Airport traffic lights, the main road was flooded, and the Tetteh Quarshie Roundabout was flooded. And I asked myself, for how long are we going to look on? Meanwhile, we all drive and pass there every day and we know the inconvenience and the traffic it creates. It is as if nobody cares, nobody wants to take any action, and all of us are looking on. We cannot continue like this. The time has come for us to invite all the agencies and institutions that are responsible for planning and making sure that the rights things are done. And we need to call them to order to ensure they do the right thing for our collective benefit.
Mr Speaker, with these few words, I want to thank the maker of the Statement, and to ask that we take action on this particular issue. Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Hon Francis Kwabena Berepong Owusu-Akyaw
Juaben
Thank you, Hon Speaker. Mr Speaker, I would like to thank the maker of the Statement on these flooding issues.
I will touch on the Government’s side, which we all know that there are little things we have to do. Even within this Budget, the money we are giving to the Ministry of Works, Housing and Water Resources, we can see that it is so inadequate that a lot of these projects cannot be undertaken because of the constraints in this Budget. So, I think it is time to also look at some of these issues to be able to cure them, so that in the next few years, we will not find flooding in this country or some other parts, especially in the Greater Accra Region.
Mr Speaker, as my brother said, as soon as it rains, we have disruption in transportation. At the same time, these things happen and they also affect public health because when it rains, and the rains also carry these plastic wastes to certain areas, we will see people over there taking some water from these areas, and then we have this cholera and all that impact. Again, it is difficult to access clean water based on this flooding that takes place in a lot of the places.
Mr Speaker, we can also look at it in a way that we can dam a lot of these waters to be used for irrigation. All these can be done through the Ministry of Works, Housing and Water Resources.
Mr Speaker, with your powers, you can also direct for the Ministry of Works, Housing and Water Resources, based on this Statement, to come and take steps in these areas where we have flooding, especially in the Weija area. Mr Speaker, it also goes to affect the livestock because when we are undertaking these fishponds in these areas and others, the flood water comes into them and contaminates what they have there. Again, these floods disrupt the building of infrastructures in the country.
Mr Speaker, we have some families which are going to live without shelter. I think National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) can go and assist them and we can take a proper step through the Ministry of Works, Housing and Water Resources, to minimise this in the near future. Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Hon Thomas Winsum Anabah
Garu
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to this Statement made by the Leader over there.
First of all, we have to sympathise with the families that have been devastated as a result of the flooding. Then I know they have spoken a lot about the causes and possible solutions, but I think that the two main things that caused flooding in urban areas would be poor urban planning, just like they have said, and improper waste management.
Urban planning as a result of poor drainage systems and then improper waste management is that we use a lot of rubber products in this country and most of them do not degrade within the shortest possible time. As a result, they accumulate and when there is any little rain in the country, they choke our gutters and get them flooded. What do we do? We wait for the gutters to be flooded and choked and the houses of people are damaged, properties are damaged, then we rush with relief to go and support them. I am going to talk about simple measures that we can take.
Instead of sending reliefs to people, we would rather use the money to support communities and urban areas that are prone to flooding. We can use the millions we spend on dredging gutters and giving reliefs to flood victims in our urban areas to employ a lot of the youth who have no jobs and provide them with trucks to convey all the rubbish.
At every given time, the gutters must be cleaned. In that way, we have achieved getting employment for the youth and cleaned the gutters. So that when it rains, there are no floods. Then, we are making good use of our money. But we allow ourselves to produce a lot of rubbers, and we litter anywhere, and when the gutters get choked and houses are flooded, then we have to use money to go and clear it. What are we doing to ourselves?
One other issue is that when these gutters are clean and the cities are clean, infections are prevented. This flood is going to cause infection in the areas that are involved. Cholera, typhoid, pneumonia and others are going to rise. People do not even have money to eat now; they would eat anything at all and get sick. Let us ensure that urban planning is well followed by every district assembly. We should enforce the laws. People building on waterways should be stopped. I think that the cause of flooding is not because of the metropolitan assembly. Even if we resource them and gutters are choked, we would still have flooding.
Even if we resource them and do not plan the cities well, they can diagnose when the rain will fall, but we would still have flooding. So, let us rather have a change in the way we manage our urban areas and also the way we dispose garbage in this country. That would help in resolving almost 80 per cent of flooding in our cities.
Mr Speaker, thank you very much for the opportunity. That is my contribution.
Hon Frank Annoh-Dompreh
Nsawam/Adoagyiri
Mr Speaker, let me thank you for admitting the Statement. We all know the times we find ourselves in.
The focus was for us to deal with the Estimates, but you created space for this Statement to be made. Let me commend the Second Deputy Whip, the Hon Jerry Ahmed, for finding time to put together this Statement.
Mr Speaker, not to over-flog the matter, I think earlier Speakers have tried to put matters in context, in terms of the variables that should be mentioned when we talk about flooding. Not to sound repetitive though, two factors I consider very important are the impact of climate change and of course, the human factors, which are real and germane. They cannot be glossed over, but climate change and its effect are telling. The narrative has often been the control of mitigation and adaptation. Now the world is also talking about loss and damage because of the resultant effect of the damage caused by flooding and climate change.
Mr Speaker, all over the world, modern cities are taking a certain trend. The sustainability and sustenance of vegetation which serve as buffers for modern cities is something that we are tending to gloss over. We are concretising all our cities. Excessive usage of concrete is facilitating flooding. Yes, the disposal of waste and the drains are factors. But we are almost concretising every part of our city. It is not for nothing that experts have said that, in the building of modern cities, we need to consciously create space for vegetation which will serve as a buffer. That is something we are not doing, and city planners would have to take a very good look at.
Mr Speaker, the intermittent desilting of our drains in the cities is something that we are not doing. Intermittently, we should desilt. Seasonal desiltation of our drains is also important. I think if we advert our minds to these matters, we should be fine. Experts have said that coastal cities are submerging. Even in the constituency of Mr First Deputy Speaker, coastal areas and cities are submerging. We are losing old cities because of the rise of temperatures of oceans and ocean levels due of climate change. Experts have said that human factors are contributing close to 80 per cent of the causes of this flooding and these extremities of weather patterns. We cannot do away with the floods. The floods would come, but we can control it. We should prepare ahead of time. It is when we prepare ahead of time that we would be able control flooding.
Mr Speaker, not to bore you with words, I think I would pray some consequential directives from your outfit. There is a specific picture and a broader picture which is not limited to his constituency, but, all over the country, we have had the Conti Project, the restoration of the Korle Lagoon Project and others. Billions of cedis have gone down the drain without proper accountability and transparency.
Mr Speaker, I think going forward, because there are cross-cutting issues, the Minister for Works, Housing and Water Resources in consultation with the Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, the assemblies and their leadership, must come with some short-term, mediumterm, and long-term plans to deal with this problem. Otherwise, it becomes a vicious cycle. Let me conclude on the note on inviting you—I know we would rise soon. But when we come back, I am sure the two Ministers, the Ministers for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs; and Works, Housing and Water Resources could come and apprise the House on some plans and projects to deal with this flooding.
Mr Speaker, with this said, thank you for the space granted. I am grateful.
Hon Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe
Ada
Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to add my voice to the Statement made by our Hon Second Deputy Minority Whip, Hon Ahmed Shaib.
Mr Speaker, I share his pain because I live around that area and understand how the flood can disturb and destabilise everything and activities in that area.
Mr Speaker, in the Greater Accra Region, we have three rivers that connect to the sea. One is the Odawna River that connects from the Kwame Nkrumah Circle to the sea; one can see that there is a provision for a gutter that can connect it to the sea, though not well organised but it is somehow all right. Then, we have “Odaw-korkor” that connects through Kaneshie to the sea. With that one too, there is a hidden gutter on the street of the Odorkor Road through Abbosey Okai to the sea. That one too is somehow all right. Then we have the Densu River that connects Weija to Weija-Gbawe. It passes through Sakaman, Otodzor, Sahara Down, Tunga, Dansoman Last Stop, Gbegbeise and that one must connect to the sea.
Mr Speaker, we can do these things as simple as ABCD. But we do not care. When we are in the rainy season, the flood will come; then we would just talk, and that ends it. We do not do anything about it.
Mr Speaker, go and look at Netherlands. They are living with water, and nobody tells them that they are building on a waterway. Because they know the whole land is water logged. So, they build and give attention to the water and even use it as recreation and tourist areas for people to come and watch.
Mr Speaker, we can work around all these things and even make it beautiful. Every day, we say people should leave where they are because they live close to a flood area. Even if they leave that area, the place will still flood and the flood would even move to other places and flood those places. All we need is good planning for these three rivers, and we will be fine and good to go.
Mr Speaker, when the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) Project money came, that was $250 million, I was saying “Thank you, Lord” because I live around that area, and always, we see floods. I said that money could even solve part of the problem but we did not see anything. It is as if we black people are our own enemies. We do not do proper planning, but every day we keep talking and blaming people.
Mr Speaker, we can do it. Let us all come together and make sure that we do not take advantage of money dedicated for such programmes and then use parts to do unnecessary things that will not help us as a nation.
Mr Speaker, thank God the President has formed a committee that will look into these flood issues. We pray that they get money so that they do good planning for the nation. When Accra is good, everybody will be fine in Accra. Because it is those rivers that flood everywhere. We could not manage just those three rivers Accra. Let us do proper planning for these rivers. If we would spend a whole year’s budget for Greater Accra Region on those rivers, let us do it, then we will stop complaining so that we will build and not have any issues. So, it is not about who has built close to that river. It is about the proper planning to give a good lane to the river to connect to the sea, so that people will go and even view that area and say that it is an area where a person can go and release stress.
Mr Speaker, we can do it. Some people have done it. I do not think God created them so differently. We are all created the same, so we should also put on our thinking cap properly and work for our nation and for our children’s children to enjoy. Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity.
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