Ghana’s climate crisis: Who suffers?

In her new book, Climate Injustice, a UK-based climate scientist, Dr Friederike Otto, invites us to consider who is most impacted by extreme weather events, such as heavy rainfall and extreme flooding. 

They frequently cause serious damage in African cities, including Accra, Ghana and Durban, South Africa.

Is it the rich living in their gated communities or the poor living in much less salubrious environments, who experience extreme weather events the worst? 

How people in African cities experience the results of extreme weather depends on local economic and social conditions and, fundamentally, on their political situation.

Ghana and South Africa are two of Africa’s very few liberal democracies.

However, this does not mean that these countries’ urban poor experience the consequences of extreme weather events better than those living in non-democracies.

The constitutional right to representative government in liberal democracies does not necessarily mean that the consequences of extreme weather events are adequately addressed by those in power, many of whom live well away from the worst-affected areas.

In common with many other West African countries, Ghana suffers from serious flooding during the rainy season, most recently in 2022 and 2023.

Floods caused significant damage to infrastructure, homes, businesses and farmland, impacting thousands of people and resulting in substantial economic and human losses.

They were caused in part by above-average rainfall that was significantly more intense than it would have been without climate change.

Yet, while the heavy rainfall and consequential floods were commonly seen as ‘natural hazards’, they were significantly exacerbated by human-caused climate change; in other words, they were anything but ‘natural’.

People in the flood-affected areas, enduring both poor infrastructure and high rates of poverty, were particularly vulnerable, and experienced worse effects than those living in well-off areas.

How extreme events are reported in both the local press and media, as well as internationally, not only influences which responsive measures are deemed possible, but also encourages us to identify who is responsible for implementing necessary improvements.

Describing extreme weather as a singular moment, a one-off, that only speaks to the dangers of climate change – and nothing more – encourages us to ignore other factors, including poor governance.

Yet, this may have just as much (if not more) impact on the effects of extreme weather.

Referring to ‘natural hazards’ lets politicians and policymakers off the hook: it offers them a handy discussion framework while seeking to divert attention from poor local and national decision-making and planning, as well as skewed distribution of financial resources.

Poor governance

In Ghana, poor governance, local and national decision-making and planning, and unfair distribution of financial resources combine so that the most vulnerable suffer disproportionately from worsening climate-related incidents.

Consequential to inadequate urban planning, people build on watercourses and flood-prone areas, including Ramsar Sites.

In addition, slum areas in Ghana’s main cities – such as Accra’s Nima, Old Fadama (Sodom and Gomorrah), Agbogbloshie and Jamestown, and Kumasi’s Aboabo, Ayigya Zongo and Oforikrom – bear testament to a lack of joined-up thinking when it comes to urban development.

Deprived communities lack proper drainage and proper waste management systems, consistent problems exacerbated by the effects of heavy and prolonged rainfall.

Flooding in such communities can lead to the outbreak of potentially fatal waterborne diseases, including cholera, typhoid and diarrhoea, which disproportionately affect the vulnerable, especially the poor, children and the elderly.  

Due to a skewed distribution of healthcare facilities and practitioners, deprived areas of Ghana may be unable to access expert health care.

This is not only because the few health posts may be located far away, but also because of a lack of accessibility due to inadequate roads, a problem worsened during the rainy season when roads can be unusable for long periods.

More generally, climate change is an important driver of negative health outcomes which worsens already precarious health inequality in Ghana.

To improve health care in Ghana in the wake of the climate crisis, researchers, policymakers and public health educators need to do much more to find ways to deal with the impact of climate change on health in Ghana.

Climate change

Additionally, many parts of northern Ghana suffer from erratic rainfall patterns, deleteriously impacting on agriculture and food security.

Conditions are worsened when farmers in Ghana have their fields flooded by spillage from the Bagre dam in neighbouring Burkina Faso.

This is a perennial concern, yet authorities have done little concretely to improve things.

Climate change is making the situation worse as the dam overflows more frequently as rainfall gets heavier and more unpredictable.

The situation encourages further migration to urban centres, mainly to slums in Accra and Kumasi, worsening already precarious conditions in these areas.  
What is to be done?

Government officials and policymakers must take steps to address systemic inequalities and inadequate infrastructure.

There is an urgent need to invest in robust drainage and waste management systems, especially in flood-prone areas, so as to mitigate the impact of heavy rains.

Proper urban planning and enforcement of regulations and bylaws regarding building permits is a necessity.

Improving healthcare infrastructure and services in vulnerable areas and expanding the coverage of the NHIS to make healthcare more accessible are essential.

The writers are an Emeritus Professor of Politics, London Metropolitan University and a Political Scientist