Ghana faces a devastating and expensive $5 billion problem

According to the Ghanaian newspaper, MyJoyOnline, Dr John Kissi, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Hydrological Authority, revealed to the Assurances Committee of Parliament on Wednesday, August 28, that it would cost $5 billion to put a stop to the nation’s flooding troubles.

Several regions across the nation have experienced significant and sudden floods whenever it rains, devastating property and occasionally killing people.

He noted that the sum would help mitigate the problem, particularly by developing comprehensive flood risk management plans in all Ghana regions, to reduce flooding’s effects and protect populations.

Without the fund, he warned that the flooding would persist in several areas.

“The work that we have done looking at the flood risk challenges across the country, we estimate that we need about 5 billion dollars to comprehensively address the flood risk challenge that we have,” he said.

He also revealed to the parliament that last year, the Hydrological Authority received around 92 million cedis under the national flood control project to carry out flood mitigation activities across the country, but the amount proved inadequate.

Another report by MyJoyOnline disclosed that Ghana is one of Africa’s highest-risk weather-hazard regions.

The West African country had seven massive floods during the last three decades. The horrific flood and fire tragedy in the Odaw watershed on June 3, 2015, resulted in the tragic loss of about 150 lives.