ACCRA, June 12 (JoyNews Research) – When heavy rains submerged swathes of Ghana’s capital this month, paralysing transport and destroying homes and businesses, they also washed away one of President John Dramani Mahama’s signature campaign promises: to bring an end to Accra’s perennial flooding.
Mahama, who returned to office in January 2025, had made flooding a centrepiece of his 2024 election campaign, pledging an “engineering solution” to a problem that has plagued the low-lying coastal city for decades. Seventeen months later, with parts of Accra under water again, the gap between that promise and the floodwater has become a recurring line of attack.
In a Facebook post on May 27, 2024, Mahama said his government would find engineering solutions to the persistent flooding, especially in Accra, if he were re-elected. The plan, he said, would include investing in sustainable drainage systems, clearing structures in waterways, proper waste management, and proactive measures to mitigate the impact of heavy rains.
“We cannot afford to continue risking the lives and livelihoods of our people. It is time for real change and real solutions,” he wrote at the time.
BLAME ON PREDECESSOR
The promise was bound up with criticism of his predecessor, Nana Akufo-Addo. Mahama said the previous government claimed to have spent $200 million on the World Bank-backed Greater Accra Resilient Integrated Development Programme (GARID), yet the impact had not been felt.
“While the impact of that huge amount and its intervention have yet to be felt, parliament was recently recalled to approve another $150 million for the same GARID,” he said in 2024, adding that the administration had failed to protect lives and property.
His National Democratic Congress argued the previous government’s failure to desilt the Odaw River, the Korle Lagoon and other drains had worsened the flooding.
A TASK FORCE AND A HELICOPTER
In March 2025, two months into his term, Mahama set up a seven-member Anti-Flood Taskforce chaired by Deputy Chief of Staff Stanislav Dogbe. Its first act was an aerial survey of flood-prone areas including Weija, the Sakumo Ramsar site and the Tema Fishing Harbour.
“The President, concerned about the persistent flooding not only in Accra but across the country, has set up a special task force to tackle the issue and minimize, if not entirely prevent, floods,” Dogbe told reporters, saying the army would help desilt major drains.
In April 2025, Mahama toured flood-prone sites and, visibly angered by buildings erected on wetlands, ordered the demolition of structures blocking watercourses.
“These wetlands were nature’s way of protecting us. Now, because of greed and negligence, people are building on watercourses and, when the rains come, innocent lives are lost and homes are destroyed. This must stop,” he said, adding that the time for warnings was over.
INSURANCE AS A SECOND LINE OF DEFENCE
Alongside the engineering pledges, the government has turned to financial protection. In the 2026 budget, the administration committed to a parametric flood insurance scheme for the capital. “In 2026, Ghana will also adopt a Parametric Flood Insurance Scheme for the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area, protecting 1.2 million vulnerable residents from flood-related disasters,” the budget statement said.
The scheme builds on a project launched in 2022 under a public-private partnership. Led by Ghana’s Ministry of Finance, the U.N. Development Programme’s Insurance and Risk Finance Facility and the Insurance Development Forum, with German government support, the initiative delivered two parametric insurance products – an Excess Rainfall Cover and a Flood Footprint Product – for the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area. Unlike traditional insurance, which pays out based on damage assessments, parametric products trigger faster payouts based on predefined parameters such as rainfall levels or flood severity, and target vulnerable households in low-income and informal settlements.
Progress, however, has been slow. One analysis noted that procurement began only in September 2025, following approval from the Ministry of Finance, and that the January 2025 presidential transition had greatly slowed the flood product process. Experts have also cautioned that insurance is a complement, not a cure: infrastructure projects take years to complete while floods happen in hours, and even with improved drainage, flood risk will persist as climate change intensifies extreme rainfall.
FLOODS RETURN
The rains came anyway. After days of downpours in early June 2026, roads from Kaneshie and Odawna to the Kwame Nkrumah Circle area turned into rivers within hours, trapping commuters and flooding markets.
Returning from a visit to Belarus on June 9, Mahama directed the disaster management agency NADMO and other bodies to prepare a comprehensive report on the flooding, saying this year’s rains had been more intense than usual.
His diagnosis, however, had shifted. Speaking to the diaspora in London on May 31, the president who had campaigned on an engineering fix said the opposite.
“The flooding in Accra is not an engineering problem. It is just a problem of indiscipline,” he said, citing construction on waterways and plastic waste dumped in drains.
The reversal echoed an argument Akufo-Addo himself made in 2022, and drew criticism that Mahama, having blamed his predecessor, now faced the same charge.
