Ghana must stop fighting floods only after they occur

Every rainy season, the same cycle repeats itself. Communities are submerged, families lose their homes, businesses suffer huge losses, roads become impassable, and the government spends millions of Ghana cedis on emergency relief. Yet, once the floodwaters recede, national attention fades until the next disaster.

Ghana cannot continue to respond to flooding as an emergency. It must be managed as a predictable national risk through science, technology and evidence-based planning. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), through its Research Staff Association (RSA), has proposed an actionable flood mitigation strategy that combines immediate interventions with medium- and long-term investments to significantly reduce flood disasters across the country. ...