Accra's Drainage Crisis: Why June's Deadly Floods Expose a Systemic Problem

Heavy rainfall killed at least 12 people in Accra on 30 June, submerging homes and roads across the Alajo neighbourhood and beyond. The deluge exposed what experts say is structural vulnerability: rapid, largely informal urbanization has eliminated permeable ground cover, while stormwater systems designed decades ago cannot handle current population density. The Odaw River basin repeatedly fails during peak rainfall. Ghanaian officials now face pressure to accelerate drainage investment and enforce building codes in flood-prone areas, as the pattern of mass-casualty flooding worsens annually.