At least 12 individuals have died, with 38,802 individuals in 7,761 households displaced by last Monday’s downpour, the Minister for the Interior, Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, has told Parliament.
Briefing the legislature on the impact of the flood situation in Accra and other parts of the country, the interior minister said seven more persons were missing, following the flood that impacted life, property and economic activities in 18 metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) in Accra.
The assemblies included Ga East (Abokobi area); Ledzokuku (Teshie); Ayawaso Central (Kokomlemle areas); Ga Central (Sowutuom); Ga West (Amasaman); Ablekuma North (Kwashieman, Odorkor, Awoshie, Sakaman, Nyamekye areas); Ningo-Prampram, Weija/Gbawe, and Ga South (including Ngleshie Amanfro, Bortianor, Kokrobite, Tuba, and Oshiyie).
The rest are Adentan; Korle Klottey (Adabraka, Circle, Osu etc); Okaikwei South (including Kaneshie, Awudome, Bubuashie, Avenor); Okaikwei North (including Achimota, Abeka, Tesano, Akweteman, Nii Boiman, Abofu, Apenkwa etc); Tema West (including Sakumono, Baatsonaa, Lashibi, Klagon, Adjei-Kojo, Halcrow, Dzata-Bu, Kassadjan, Railways, Kaiser etc); Tema Metropolitan; La Dadekotopon (La), and Krowor (Nungua) assemblies.
Mr Mohammed-Mubarak empathised with those affected by the flash floods.
“Let me take this opportunity to extend our condolences and that of the government and the people of Ghana to the families that lost their family members and we assure them we are with them in this difficult moment,” he said.
The minister said the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMeT) had drawn the Interior Ministry’s attention to expect more rains this June and July.
He said Monday’s floods only came to the ministry’s attention around midnight of the day before the floods.
The interior minister said while the agency predicted potential heavy rainfall, they could not really “tell us about the quantum of water we should expect”.
“But, Mr Speaker, by the time we got to the morning, we saw a volume that is the fourth highest that this country has ever seen since 1995, a volume of 169 millimetres of water in a day.
“With the rains flooding largely almost all Accra, he said it prevented people going into the central business areas of Accra because almost all the peripheries were affected,” Mr Mohammed-Mubarak said.
Mr Mohammed-Mubarak said per the statistics received from the GMeT, it clearly stated that in the month of June much rains were normally expected.
“But what happened that day gave us 169.2 millimetres of water and this is the fourth largest volume of water in a day since 1995.
“And for the month of June, we had a total in month of June of 593.2 millimetres of water”.
“And Mr Speaker, it’s the highest our country has ever received in its history in one month as the last time this happened was in 2002 and that was 420.6 millimetres,” the minister for the Interior stated.
Displaced
On the number of persons displaced in various municipalities, the interior minister said 2,000 persons from 400 households were displaced in Ga East, with six missing individuals and five deaths.
In Ledzokuku, he said 1,200 persons were displaced from 240 households, with one person dead, while in Ayawaso Central, 3,021 from 605 houses were displaced. There were three deaths with one person missing.
In Ga Central, Mr Mohammed-Mubarak said 1,811 individuals were displaced from 363 households with no missing or dead person, but in Ga West, 2,300 from 460 households were displaced.
In Ablekuma North, 651 displaced and 131 households were affected but no missing or dead persons were recorded, while in Ningo-Prampram 1,377 displaced with 276 households impacted.
For Weija-Gbawe, the minister said 2,500 individuals were displaced when 500 households got affected and in the Ga South municipality, 2,100 were displaced and 420 households were impacted.
In Adentan, Mr Mohammed-Mubarak said 1,850 individuals were displaced and 270 households affected, while in Korle Klottey 6,500 were displaced from 1,300 households.
In Okaikwei South, 701 were displaced from 141 households, with 2,620 displaced in Okaikwei North where 524 households were affected.
“In Tema West, we had 690 households affected, with 3,450 individuals displaced; in the Tema Metropolis, we have 721 households displaced, which affected 3,601 individuals.
“In the case of Tema West, three persons lost their lives.
The La Dadekotopon had 404 households houses affected, amounting to 2,020 individuals,” he said.
In the Krowor municipality, there were 220 households affected by last Monday’s floods, which displaced 1,100 individuals. There were no deaths.
Central Region
On the flood situation in the Central Region, Mr Mohammed-Mubarak said information from the Central Region over the last two weeks, showed that 58 houses collapsed.
In the Cape Coast Metropolis, 20 houses collapsed, while in Gomoa East, two houses were lost, with one house lost in Gomoa West.
In Agona East, Mr Mohammed-Mubarak stated that seven houses were lost, one house in Gomoa Central and one house Twifo Hemang West, with six houses going down in Twifo
Hemang Lower Denkyira and five houses in Mfantsiman, one house in Assin South and seven houses in Assin North and in Efutu, two houses.
In the same Cape Coast, five persons lost their lives to building collapse with one person drowning.
In Gomoa Central, death by building collapse was one and drowning one, while in Mfantsiman, death by building collapse was two and death by drowning was one.
In the Volta Region, Mr Mohammed-Muntaka said some information from the region showed that 60 communities were affected.
“I must admit that, based on the information that we have, they were no life-threatening situations in the case of Volta Region,” he said.
Volta Region
He named the districts that were affected in the region as Keta, where seven communities were affected, and Anlo where six communities were affected.
“Ketu South had six communities being affected, Ketu North (Dzodze) had six communities affected. South Tongu (Sogakope) had eight communities affected; Akatsi had nine communities affected.
“Adaklu had two communities affected; Central Tongu (Adidome) had three communities affected, North Tongu (Battor) had two communities affected and Ho municipality had eight communities were affected,” he said.
Western North
In Western North, the interior minister said there was in excess of 1,200 persons displaced in Samreboi and its environs.
