Ghana’s recurring flood crisis is increasingly an economic problem, exposing businesses, livelihoods, public infrastructure, and household assets to losses that cannot be addressed by drains, dredging, and emergency relief alone.
Researchers, traditional authorities, development practitioners and international partners are therefore calling for a broader national approach that puts communities at the centre of flood preparedness and resilience while strengthening the institutions and partnerships needed to protect economic activity.
The warning emerged at the book launch of New Insights in Flood Risk Management: Learning from Global Case Studies of Stakeholder Partnerships at the British Council in Accra on Thursday, 17th September 2026 where academics, traditional rulers and practitioners argued that Ghana’s response to flooding must move from largely reactive interventions towards sustained partnerships involving government, universities, traditional authorities, the private sector and communities.
The economic cost of inaction is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
The June 29, 2026 floods affected 38,802 people and displaced 7,761 households across 25 communities in 18 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in Greater Accra, according to figures presented to Parliament by the Interior Minister. Twelve people were confirmed dead while seven remained missing at the time of the update.
Beyond the human toll, such disruption can bring businesses to a standstill, damage commercial property and vehicles, interrupt transportation, affect workers’ ability to report to work and disrupt access to markets and essential services.
For Professor David Proverbs, Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor for Enterprise and Innovation at De Montfort University in the United Kingdom and one of the book’s editors, the scale of the problem demonstrates why flood management cannot remain the responsibility of engineers and emergency agencies alone.
“Technical solutions alone are insufficient,” he said, arguing that effective flood management must also account for social systems, governance, institutions, culture, human relationships and the knowledge held within communities.
Professor Proverbs said flooding should increasingly be viewed as an investment issue rather than simply a disaster-response issue because every major flood carries consequences beyond the immediate destruction of property.
Livelihoods are disrupted, education is interrupted, health services are strained, and communities can take years to recover, making resilience investment a critical part of protecting economic activity.
He also stressed that communities should not be treated merely as beneficiaries of flood-resilience programmes. They should be active partners in preventing and preparing for disasters.
That thinking runs through the book, which brings together experiences from different countries and examines how governments, researchers, practitioners and communities can work together to reduce flood risks. The editors are Professor Divine Kwaku Ahadzie of KNUST, Professor Proverbs, Dr Robby Soetanto of Loughborough University and Professor Victor Oladokun of the University of Ibadan.
Professor Emmanuel Adinyira, Dean of the Faculty of Built Environment at KNUST, who represented the university leadership at the launch, described the publication as a resource that should extend beyond academic circles into government offices, planning departments and professional practice.
His remarks also underscored the practical nature of the flood challenge facing Ghana, where homes, businesses, vehicles and entire communities can be affected within hours of intense rainfall.
The Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development Project, known as GARID, already represents one of the country’s major attempts to address the problem through a combination of drainage, solid-waste management and flood-mitigation measures.
Parliament approved an additional US$150 million in World Bank financing for GARID in 2024, including works on the Odaw Basin, storm drains in Kaneshie and Nima-Paloma, detention ponds and a flood early-warning system.
The investment highlights the scale of resources required to protect Greater Accra from recurring flood losses, while also raising the importance of ensuring that infrastructure investment is supported by effective maintenance, planning and community participation.
The World Bank has previously estimated that more than 2.5 million people live in the Odaw River Basin, where recurrent flooding damages assets and disrupts economic activity. The Bank has also linked Greater Accra’s growing flood exposure to rapid development in flood-risk areas, inadequate or poorly maintained drainage systems and solid-waste accumulation along waterways.
The launch, however, placed particular emphasis on an often overlooked resource in Ghana’s flood-management system: traditional authorities. Among the traditional leaders at the launch was Torgbuiga Dorglo Anumah VI, Paramount Chief of the Avenor Traditional Area in the Volta Region, whose participation reflected the growing recognition of traditional institutions as important stakeholders in community-level disaster preparedness and resilience.
Professor Rudith King, presenting the chapter Flood Risk Management in Ghana: The Contribution of Traditional Authorities in Ghana, explained how chiefs and traditional institutions can contribute to flood preparedness, mobilisation and response.
Her presentation drew attention to situations where traditional authorities helped mobilise residents, coordinate emergency action and facilitate the movement of people from vulnerable areas to safer locations. In some communities, chiefs also provided access to land and helped create the trust required for relocation and collective action.
Professor Ahadzie the lead author of the book reinforced the argument by drawing from community-based research and experiences that demonstrated how traditional leaders can mobilise people during emergencies. His central message was that government intervention remains necessary, but government cannot be the only actor expected to carry the responsibility for flood management. He introduced the CHAMPION and GOVERNSFLASH frameworks which provide context-based Ghanaian protocols for implementing community-led partnerships for flood resilience in Ghana. The GOVERNSFFLASH has the government agency NADMO sitting at the apex collaborating with the three main actors in the Champion framework, chiefs, assemblymen, MPs while emphasising the establishment of flood risk management committees at all communities levels in the country. He emphasises that these home-based frameworks developed in Ghana aligns with the southern theory movement of having Africa knowledge solutions ot African problems.
The international experience presented by Ezekiel Olatunji added another dimension. His presentation on the FAIR Project in the United Kingdom showed how flood-risk management can bring together national agencies, local authorities, researchers, technical experts and residents before interventions are designed.
The FAIR model places considerable emphasis on sitting with communities to understand local problems, agree on interventions and give residents a meaningful role in implementation. Olatunji also highlighted the use of technology to monitor flood-risk points and infrastructure remotely, including systems that can identify blocked drainage or waste screens and support early warnings.
For Ghana, the message is increasingly an economic one: the country needs the drains, dredging, early-warning systems and other physical infrastructure already being pursued through programmes such as GARID, but it also needs stronger institutions, better coordination, community participation and greater use of local knowledge.
Professor Proverbs captured that broader principle in his call for resilience to be built not only through better infrastructure, but through stronger institutions, better relationships, trust and partnership.
The challenge, therefore, is no longer simply how to move water away from cities. It is how to protect the businesses, livelihoods, assets and economic activity that keep communities moving, while building institutions capable of anticipating the water, responding when it arrives and supporting recovery long after the headlines have moved on.
