President John Dramani Mahama has directed the Minister of Finance to release GH¢300 million from the Contingency Fund for post-flood relief and mitigation efforts as part of measures to remedy the impact of the floods on the public.
The directive followed last Monday’s heavy rains that battered the Greater Accra, Volta and parts of the Eastern regions, with the capital city, Accra, being the worst hit.
The President has also directed the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) to identify victims of the floods and provide immediate support.
The Spokesperson to the President and Minister of Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, in a statement issued in Accra yesterday, said GH¢150 million of the amount would finance “urgent relief efforts for flood-affected persons and communities in the southern sector of the country”.
It said another GH¢150 million would be spent on flood mitigation measures aimed at reducing incidents of flooding.
The statement said the President had also directed the deployment of personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) and the Ghana Police Service to work with NADMO and other security services in the rescue and relief operations currently underway across the capital.
The President last Monday undertook an aerial tour of the flooded areas to assess the full extent of the situation after which he announced a raft of steps being taken to safeguard residents and prevent further flooding.
MMDAs
After the aerial tour, President Mahama also directed every metropolitan, municipal and district assembly (MMDA) to identify all structures blocking major drainage channels within their jurisdictions and earmark them for immediate demolition.
He warned that the government would not only pull down the obstructions but also clear away the resulting rubble.
The downpour deposited approximately 140 millimetres of rainfall on Accra in a single day last Monday, more than double the highest single-day figure of about 56 millimetres recorded in the whole of last year.
By the following day, yesterday, the downpour has increased to 169mm due to fresh rains yesterday dawn.
"Every metropolitan, municipal and district assembly will be directed, in collaboration with the Ministry of Works, Housing and Water Resources, to identify all obstructions along major drainage channels within their jurisdictions.
These structures will be earmarked for removal," the President said, adding that demolition without clearing debris would be pointless.
President Mahama also announced that the National Security Council would convene an urgent meeting to address the flooding crisis, describing the scale of destruction as extensive and expressing deep sympathy for families who had lost property.
Rainfall tripling year-on-year
Speaking after the inspection, President Mahama cited data from the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet) to illustrate the accelerating pace of rainfall in the capital.
Within a 30-day period in June 2024, Accra recorded approximately 85 millimetres of rain.
In the same period in June 2025, the figure climbed to 172 millimetres, and in June 2026 it has surged to around 333 millimetres, nearly four times the 2024 figure and a clear indicator of the influence of climate change on Accra's weather patterns.
The President stated that in June alone, rain had fallen on about 22 out of 30 days, giving watercourses barely any time to recover before the next downpour.
"That aspect of the problem is beyond our control because it is driven by changing climatic conditions," he said.
Engineering failures, other causes
Beyond climate change, the President identified structural and behavioural factors worsening Accra's flooding.
He explained that Accra's geography, wedged between the Akwapim Mountain Range and the Atlantic Ocean, meant that streams historically drained naturally across the coastal plain into the sea.
As the city grew, however, buildings increasingly encroached on those natural channels, blocking the flow of water.
During the aerial inspection, the President said his team — which included the Minister of Works, Housing and Water Resources, Kenneth Gilbert Adjei, and the Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations, Stan Dogbe — observed illegal dumping sites inside wetlands, with some individuals charging tricycle operators to offload waste on the sites.
Once the wetlands fill up, he said, the same individuals sold the reclaimed land for housing, directly adding to the flood risk.
"There is also the issue of human behaviour.
People continue to dump refuse into drains, dispose of waste improperly and block waterways with all kinds of debris," he said.
"When disasters such as today's flooding occur, the consequences affect everyone.
The irresponsible actions of a few individuals end up putting entire communities at risk," the President added.
New city, decongestion plan
In the long term, President Mahama said the government intended to reduce pressure on Accra by relocating some major government institutions out of the capital and developing a new growth centre where Ghanaians could live and work.
The project, he said, was expected to span about 20 years, with land demarcation and plot sales to begin once designs were finalised.
The government would also provide roads, water and electricity infrastructure to support the new settlement.
He commended the GAF, the police, the 48 Engineers Regiment of GAF, the Ghana National Fire Service, emergency response teams and NADMO for their swift rescue operations, saying footage of personnel carrying stranded residents to safety and deploying boats demonstrated a dedication that had "undoubtedly prevented an even greater tragedy".
With a proverb, President Mahama warned against the tendency to forget urgent problems once a crisis passes.
"We should not behave like the proverbial vulture that says it will repair its roof after the rains, only to forget about it once the weather clears.
This time, we must act differently," President Mahama stressed.
