The stench of wet debris still lingers in the Adenta neighbourhood of Accra, where broken mattresses, soaked books and splintered furniture lie heaped by the roadside like corpses after a disaster. 

For 35-year-old trader Adwoa Manu, the memories of Sunday, May 18, remain vivid and traumatic.

“I held my baby on my back and waded through chest-high water just to get out of the house,” she tells bne IntelliNews. “We’ve lost everything. I don’t even know where to start.”

That night, torrential rain pummelled Ghana’s capital, triggering floods that killed at least four people and displaced more than 3,000 others. The worst-affected areas included Adenta, Abokobi, and Alajo — low-lying communities that often bear the brunt of Accra’s increasingly erratic weather patterns.

Samuel Aboagye, deputy director general of protocol and Relief at the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), confirmed the death toll and displacement figures. “We are still on the ground assessing the situation and registering affected families,” he told reporters. “Temporary shelters have been provided, and we are mobilising relief supplies including food, clothing, and mattresses.”

But for many Accra residents, this latest flood is part of a grim, familiar pattern. “Flooding is no longer a seasonal inconvenience — it’s a recurring crisis,” said Mary Owusu, a meteorologist with the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet). “We are in the peak of the major rainy season, and more rainfall is expected throughout late May into June.”

A city in harm’s way

Accra’s vulnerability to flooding is no coincidence. The city, home to over 6mn people, sits on a gentle coastal plain that naturally slopes towards the Atlantic Ocean. While this should theoretically allow rainwater to drain, rapid and unplanned urbanisation has blocked natural water pathways.

“We’ve concreted over rivers, built on wetlands, and choked drainage systems with plastic waste,” said Michael Allotey, the mayor of Accra. “What used to be nature’s flood buffers are now shopping centres and apartment buildings.”

Indeed, illegal construction and poor urban planning have long compounded the flood problem. According to the Ghana Statistical Service, more than 60% of Accra’s residents live in informal settlements, many of them located in flood-prone zones.

“We see the same pattern every year — torrential rains followed by disaster. We are fighting both climate change and human negligence,” Allotey told bne IntelliNews.

Climate change at work

Experts say climate change is exacerbating Accra’s woes. Warmer temperatures have increased the intensity and unpredictability of rainfall, turning once-manageable downpours into lethal torrents.

“The rainfall intensity on May 18 was over 90mm within two hours, which is well above average for this time of year,” said Owusu. “That’s not just weather — that’s climate change at work.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that West African coastal cities like Accra are especially vulnerable to sea-level rise and extreme weather due to their geography and infrastructure deficits.

“This is just a preview of what’s to come if mitigation and adaptation strategies are not accelerated,” said Aboagye. “NADMO can only respond after the fact — we need systems in place to prevent these disasters in the first place.”

A history of disaster

Flooding is not new to Accra. In June 2015, over 150 people died in one of the city’s worst-ever disasters, when a combination of heavy rains and a petrol station explosion devastated Kwame Nkrumah Circle. That tragedy prompted national mourning and pledges of reform, but critics say little has changed since.

“Drainage projects were started but many stalled due to lack of funding or political will,” Dr. Richard Obeng, an urban planning lecturer at the University of Ghana told bne IntelliNews. “We need a long-term flood resilience strategy, not knee-jerk responses.”

NADMO insists it is learning from past mistakes. “This time we’ve pre-positioned relief items and activated community-level early warning systems,” said Aboagye. “But the scale of urban flooding requires a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach.”

What’s being done

The Accra Resilience Strategy, launched in 2019 with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, outlines a multi-year plan to address flooding, housing, and infrastructure. Allotey says his office is working to revive the initiative.

“We are de-silting drains, enforcing building regulations, and investing in green infrastructure like retention ponds,” he said. “But progress is slow, and the needs are urgent.”

Meanwhile, GMet is stepping up its public communications. “We provide real-time weather forecasts via social media and local radio from 5:00am to 5:00pm daily,” said Owusu. “But we need citizens to take warnings seriously and make personal safety a priority.”

Residents like Adwoa Manu are sceptical. “They always come after we’ve lost everything,” she said. “What about preventing it?”

As Accra grows — and rainfall intensifies — residents and authorities alike must grapple with the reality that the city’s flood problem is no longer a seasonal nuisance but a chronic threat. Unless bold steps are taken to re-engineer how Accra lives with water, the capital may find itself drowning not just in floodwaters, but in its own neglect.

This article is part of a series on the impact of the Climate Crisis on major cities around the world. 

The other articles in the series are: 

Cities confront the rising tide of climate change

Taipei’s climate countdown

Jakarta’s sinking villages