Ghana's capital Accra submerged as floods expose long-running urban drainage crisis

Major roads, including the N1 Highway, the Accra-Kasoa Highway and areas around the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, were submerged, leaving commuters stranded and disrupting business activity across the city.

The National Disaster Management Organisation issued an urgent flood alert at 7:30 a.m. GMT on June 29, warning residents and motorists to avoid low-lying communities and flood-prone areas. It advised the public not to drive or walk through floodwaters and urged people in affected areas to move to higher ground.

Interior Minister Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka appealed for public cooperation and urged residents to remain indoors where it was safe to do so.

“We are expecting heavier rains before midday. We are therefore pleading with everyone to stay where they are if it is safe to do so,” he said.

Emergency teams, including personnel from the Ghana Armed Forces and the police, have been deployed for rescue operations in various locations. The country's main power distributors, Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) and Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), also temporarily shut down power substations in select areas to reduce electrical risks. At the same time, the Ghana School of Law postponed examinations scheduled for Monday.

A city that floods almost every year

For many residents, the latest flooding is not an isolated disaster but part of a pattern that has persisted for over a decade.

Accra has experienced repeated major floods in 2010, 2015, 2016, 2022, 2023, 2025 and 2026, with the same communities, including Kaneshie, Odawna, Adabraka, Alajo, Weija, Circle and parts of the Odaw River basin, regularly among the worst affected.

The city's most devastating disaster occurred on June 3, 2015, when torrential rain flooded much of Accra before fuel floating on floodwaters ignited at a GOIL filling station near Kwame Nkrumah Circle. The combined flood and explosion killed more than 200 people, making it one of Ghana's deadliest peacetime disasters.

According to national flood records covering 1935 to 2023, Ghana has recorded more than 3,000 flood-related deaths and over 700,000 people displaced, with Accra accounting for many of the country's most destructive urban flood events.

In 2023 alone, researchers identified around 20 separate flooding incidents, while a storm in May 2025 killed four people and displaced more than 3,000 residents.

A recent United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Ghana analysis described Accra’s floods as a familiar crisis, noting that homes, businesses and transport systems were again affected after heavy rainfall in early June 2026.

Why Accra keeps flooding

Urban planners say heavy rainfall alone does not explain the severity of flooding.

Researchers have consistently identified a combination of rapid urbanisation, construction on wetlands and floodplains, inadequate drainage infrastructure, blocked waterways caused by waste disposal and weak enforcement of planning regulations as the main drivers of Accra's flood risk.

The President of the Ghana Institution of Engineers has criticised the country’s long-term approach to urban planning, saying, “We have done things the wrong way for over 30–40 years.”

Rapid population growth has also transformed natural floodplains into densely populated neighbourhoods, while large areas of permeable land have been replaced by concrete, increasing surface runoff during storms.

Climate experts say heavier rainfall associated with climate change is further increasing the frequency and intensity of flooding across coastal West African cities, including Accra.

Economic costs

Accra is Ghana's commercial centre and the Greater Accra Region generates more than 40% of the country's non-oil GDP, meaning repeated flooding disrupts national supply chains, transportation and commerce.

Small businesses are among the hardest hit, with floods regularly destroying inventory, damaging equipment and forcing temporary closures.

The World Bank committed US$150 million in additional financing under the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) Project to improve flood management, drainage systems and solid waste management for more than 2.5 million people living within the Odaw River Basin.

However, UNDP has argued that infrastructure alone will not solve the problem. It has supported work on a Greater Accra flood contingency plan and parametric flood insurance model designed to provide faster payouts after severe flooding, especially for vulnerable households in low-income and informal settlements.

Public frustration grows

Residents say the repeated nature of the crisis has deepened public frustration.

“We are reliving the same story every rainy season… when it rains like this, we know trouble is coming,” one resident said.

The Ghana Meteorological Agency has forecast continued rainfall across southern Ghana, including coastal areas, while authorities have urged residents to report emergencies through the national emergency number 112.