Floods without surprise
By F.E. Amanor A Strategic Intelligence Failure? Is there someone who is to carry the blame? “Nature does not repeat its warnings because it has forgotten. It repeats them because we have.” During the yearly rainy season, my beloved country Ghana receives the same intelligence warning. Yet, we respond as though it arrived without notice. […]
In Ghana, the yearly rainy season brings intelligence warnings, yet the country responds as though it were unannounced. The dark clouds gather over the Akwapim-Togo Ranges and can be seen stretching across the eastern horizon of Accra. Heavy rains descend upon the capital without warning, causing traffic and all forms of movement to come to a halt.
The Odaw River bursts beyond its banks, flooding familiar areas including Kaneshie, Alajo, Adabraka, Weija, Tetegu, Ashaiman, Tema and several low-lying zones. Television and radio stations interrupt regular programming, and social media is flooded with posts of flooded streets, homes, and tragic losses. Government officials visit affected individuals with emergency interventions, while opposition politicians accuse the government of incompetence.
The cycle continues year after year, with the same roads flooding and communities suffering. Despite studies identifying rapid urbanization, inadequate drainage, encroachment, weak planning, and rainfall variability as the main drivers, Ghana continues to experience predictable floods. This strategic intelligence failure goes beyond engineering, meteorology, urban planning, or climate science.
It is a failure to translate known knowledge into sustained policy action. The country seemingly remains shocked by events that are predictably foreseeable, raising the question of how Ghana repeatedly fails to prevent disasters it already knows are coming.
Written by urgent.news from GBC Ghana's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
