Drainage Reform Cannot Wait Any Longer, Engineers Urge Ghana

Ghana's drainage systems are critically failing to manage the country's escalating flood risks, prompting the Ghana Institution of Engineering (GhIE) to demand a fundamental overhaul of national stormwater management policies. The institution argues that current infrastructure cannot cope with the combined pressures of rapid urbanization, climate variability, and increasing flood dangers.

For years, flooding in urban centers like Accra has been treated as a recurring inconvenience, with roads submerged, homes destroyed, businesses disrupted, and lives lost. However, the GhIE emphasizes that this cycle is structural, stemming from drainage systems largely designed decades ago for less dense cities. Today, rapid urban expansion has replaced natural infiltration areas with concrete and asphalt, while waste management issues have turned many drains into dumping grounds, overwhelming crucial systems like those serving the Odaw and Korle Lagoon.

The GhIE's observation that flooding now occurs even with relatively low rainfall indicates a systemic failure in planning, design, and coordination, not just an issue of rainfall intensity. The institution proposes a shift towards decentralized, nature-based stormwater management systems, which are globally proven. These include permeable pavements, rain gardens, bioswales, green roofs, and rainwater harvesting – practices that are standard in modern resilient cities but largely absent in Ghana.

A key weakness identified by the GhIE is institutional fragmentation. When responsibility for drainage is divided among multiple agencies that lack effective coordination, and when administrative boundaries do not align with natural drainage basins, inefficiency is inevitable. This fragmentation explains why flooding persists despite repeated investments in drainage projects. The Ghanaian Times deems this a critical moment for decisive national action to implement these much-needed reforms.