Can global development finance make Accra resilient?

By Rosina Sheburah Essien, George Owusu and Kofi Kekeli Amedzro

Temporary or continuous flooding has been an annual phenomenon in Accra, Ghana’s populous city and the country’s nerve-centre since the early 1930s. Perhaps the worst flood in Accra’s history was that of June 3rd 2015 which killed over 150 people, destroyed properties and displaced several others. Many devasting floods have been recorded since then in this ever-growing metropolitan region. The latest is that of Saturday, May 21, Monday, May 23, 2022 and Thursday June 16 2022 when flooding left several parts of the metropolitan region in ruins. As demonstrated in the picture above, places such as the Graphic Road, Abossey Okai, Kaneshie, Odawna, Alajo, Kasoa, Kwame Nkrumah Circle and Agbogbloshie, which are all within the capital city and its environs, were submerged with properties destroyed and commuters and motorists left stranded.

Even though climate change is often cited as altering rainfall patterns and increasing the potential for floods globally, much flooding in Accra has been attributed to the combined effect of improper solid waste management (SWM), the nature of the topography, the occupation of floodplains due to weak planning and development control, poor drainage channels maintenance and massive urban growth with impervious surfaces preventing water infiltration [1]. Other causal factors according to experts are weak leadership at the local government level as well as the attitude of the city authorities and some members of the general public toward SWM [2]. An examination of the SWM situation by Quartz Africa News reportage, for instance, revealed Accra as a city of choked drains with piles of rubbish sitting on street corners. The SWM troubles alone are daunting due to the inability of city authorities to properly plan, forecast and predict the quantity of solid waste generated or to make proposals as to how waste could be properly managed in a more comprehensive and integrated manner. However, the World Bank and other studies estimate that between 2500 and 3000 tons of solid waste is generated per day in Accra and 12,710 tons is generated per day nationally [3] [4]. Within the Greater Accra region, approximately 75% of solid waste is collected through either door-to-door collection services or communal collection containers, leaving a backlog of about 25% which ends up in open drains and water bodies. This consequently exacerbates the city’s flooding vulnerability during rainy seasons (April-July or September-November). Moreover, the metropolitan region’s population of over 5 million is expected to continue to increase rapidly in the next decades, making urban management a topmost priority [5]. As the urban population expands at the expense of adequate planning and infrastructure, it becomes a major challenge to city authorities to make Accra resilient through the institution of structural and non-structural flood control measures.

Between 2015 and 2020 alone, 1446 flood events were recorded [6]. This caused 309 injuries, 510 deaths, 54,744 houses being inundated and the destruction of 136,563 acres of farmlands. The estimated cost of addressing the city’s perennial flooding exceeds US$1billion [3]. Whereas some experts and practitioners have suggested holistic reengineering and decongestions of parts of Accra, other city officials believe investment in resilient infrastructure is the way forward to improve flood risk management [7]. In line with the idea of resilient infrastructure, in 2019 the Government of Ghana—in collaboration with its development partners including the World Bank, the French Development Agency (AFD), the Dutch Government and the Swiss Co-operation for Development (SECO) - launched the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) project. Financial support, apart from the World Bank, has come from the Dutch Government to undertake the feasibility of applying performance-based contracting to the dredging of the Odaw Basin with an amount of EUR 1 million.  SECO, on the other hand, provides technical support through the City Resilience Program of the Global Fund for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) - a global development partnership which helps underdeveloped countries to reduce their vulnerability to natural hazards and climate change [3].

It is expected that the GARID project will expand existing drains, dredge the heavily polluted Odaw River to remove materials that impede the flow of water, and construct detention ponds upstream of the Odaw basin to hold large volumes of water to prevent flooding crisis. As such, implementation is being carried out in close collaboration with the Government of Ghana through three main ministries; namely the Ministry of Works and Housing (MWH), Sanitation and Water Resources (MSWR), Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), alongside regulatory agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Ghana Meteorological Agency (G-Met), Water Resource Commission (WRC), Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority (LUSPA) and Lands Commission. The project is seen as providing an integrated, multisectoral and long-term approach to mitigate the impacts of floods in the city while ensuring that stronger disaster and climate change preparedness, resilient infrastructure and sustainable urban development management measures are instituted. Notwithstanding these, concerns have been raised by some city officials about whether the GARID project will be effective enough to reduce flooding incidents in Accra since uncertainty about long term funding is stalling the project [6].

Presently, the World Bank’s IDA funding of US$200million, amidst other technical support from development partners, only covers the first phase (2020-2025) of the project implementation works. An amount of US$700million is yet to be secured for the other two phases spanning from 2026 to 2031. Going forward, several additional interventions need to be undertaken by city authorities to combat poor urban planning and management, and indiscriminate disposal of solid waste, as well as to leverage long-term funds for sustainable infrastructure development appropriate to its urban ecosystem. Since global development finance remains key to resolving Accra’s recurring flooding issues, it will be important for researchers to delve deeper into how finance is mobilised across different actors with different spatialities for particular kinds of urban development projects such as GARID. This raises the need to study the politics that determines the formation of urban development projects in relation to transcalar governance processes and value flows, and to assess their territorial outcomes.

References

[1] Kusimi JM & Yeboah E (2019). Flood Hazards at Alajo: Causes, impacts and adaptations. International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science 3(8): 268–278. See also Amoako C & Frimpong Boamah E (2015). The three-dimensional causes of flooding in Accra, Ghana. International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development 7(1):109–29.

 [2] See Graphic online (2022). City authorities, indiscipline cause of floods. Available here https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/city-authorities-indiscipline-cause-of-floods.html.

[3] See World Bank (2019). Greater Accra resilient integrated development appraisal document. Available at https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/675901559440929710/pdf/Ghana-Greater-Accra-Resilient-and-Integrated-Development-Project.pdf

[4] Lissah SY, Ayanore MA, Krugu JK, Aberese-Ako M & Ruiter RAC (2021) Managing urban solid waste in Ghana: Perspectives and experiences of municipal waste company managers and supervisors in an urban municipality. PLoS ONE 16(3): 1–18.

[5] PHC (2021). Ghana 2021 population and housing census: General report volume 3a. Available at https://statsghana.gov.gh/gssmain/fileUpload/pressrelease/2021%20PHC%20General%20Report%20Vol%203A_Population%20of%20Regions%20and%20Districts_181121.pdf

[6] See Myjoyonline (2022). Why over ¢117m could not solve Ghana’s flooding crisis – A-G’s report explains. Available at https://www.myjoyonline.com/why-over-117m-could-not-solve-ghanas-flooding-crisis-a-gs-report-explains/.

[7] See Myjoyonline (2022). I pray GARID project sees the light of day to reduce flooding – NADMO Communication Director. Available at https://www.myjoyonline.com/i-pray-garid-project-sees-the-light-of-day-to-reduce-flooding-nadmo-communication-director/. See also Graphic online (2022). City authorities, indiscipline cause of floods. Available here https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/city-authorities-indiscipline-cause-of-floods.html.