The Board Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr Nii Moi Thompson, says the failure of authorities to implement recommendations contained in Ghana’s infrastructure plan was responsible for the recurring flooding in Accra and other parts of the country.
He believes implementing the plan when it was developed in 2017, would have prevented many of the devastating floods experienced in recent.
Speaking on Channel One TV on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, Dr Thompson said the infrastructure plan outlined comprehensive measures to address flooding across the country.
“It’s quite avoidable. What we’re seeing shouldn’t have happened. The impact would have been minimal. The Ghana Infrastructure Plan talks about what we have to do about flooding, not just in Accra but also in other parts of the country,” he said.
He added that a range of interventions, including drainage improvements, flood control measures and coastal protection projects, were all proposed in the plan.
“It included institutional arrangements for flood control and coastal protection and addressed Accra and other urban drainage challenges, including flood management practices. We talked about all these things in 2017 and put them in a book, and nobody worked with it,” he stated.
According to him, executing the plan would have reduced the severity and frequency of flooding in the country.
“We should have put in place the proposals made in there, which are supposed to be institutional reforms, policy reforms, actual implementations and a spatial development framework,” he added.
Dr Thompson’s comments come in the wake of recent flooding incidents in parts of Accra that has displaced residents and prompted the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and other agencies to demolish structures considered a threat to lives and property.
