The Ghana Hydrological Authority has justified its request for $5 billion to effectively address the country’s ongoing flood challenges.
In 2023, the authority was allocated only GH¢92 million under the National Flood Control Programme, an amount it deems grossly insufficient to fulfil its responsibilities.
The authority’s director, Dr. John Kissi, explained that the requested funds would be directed toward a range of initiatives, including dredging, to provide a comprehensive solution to the nation’s flood problems.
“In order to comprehensively tackle flooding, looking at all the various causes of flooding, looking at the solid waste management, looking at the early warning system, looking at dredging, looking at constructing new drains, this is the kind of solution that we are talking about [to tackle flooding]. We are talking about GARID [Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development] being used as a model to comprehensively deal with the flooding challenges.
“To deal with this issue [flooding], you have to take an end-to-end measure. So if you look at catchments like Odaw, $285 million, in Greater Accra alone, we have about nine catchments. So you multiply that by nine, and that is how much you have to invest roughly in Greater Accra alone.
“So think about Ashanti Region, think about Western Region, think about Central and Eastern. So the picture I am painting with respect to the GARID project will give you a very good idea of how much we need to comprehensively and the key word here is comprehensively, deal with the flooding challenges that we have in the country.”
