“A communications network is truly tested not on a sunny day, but when disaster strikes and people need it most.”
When torrential rains swept through parts of Ghana recently, the country watched familiar scenes unfold. Roads disappeared beneath floodwaters, homes and businesses were submerged, markets shut down, and emergency workers raced to reach stranded communities.
As always, public debate centred on poor drainage, weak urban planning, blocked waterways and the devastating loss of lives. Those conversations were necessary. But amid all the discussion, one critical piece of national infrastructure received little attention: our telecommunications networks.
That silence is remarkable because, in today’s digital economy, telecommunications are as essential as roads, electricity and water. When floods strike, communication becomes the backbone of every emergency response. Ambulances rely on it. Security agencies depend on it. Banks process electronic transactions through it. Families use it to locate loved ones, while journalists depend on it to keep the public informed.
In many ways, the country’s ability to respond to a disaster now depends on whether its communications networks remain operational.
Fortunately, despite the severity of the recent flooding, Ghana did not experience any widely reported nationwide collapse of its mobile telecommunications networks. Customers may have encountered isolated service interruptions, but there was no prolonged or widespread breakdown.
Rather than dismissing this as an uneventful outcome, we should ask an important question: why did the network continue to function while so much else around it struggled?
The answer is that telecommunications resilience does not happen by accident.
Many people assume a telecommunications network is simply a collection of mobile towers scattered across the country. In reality, those towers represent only the visible part of a vast and highly interconnected system comprising fibre optic cables, microwave transmission links, data centres, internet gateways, power systems, network operations centres and thousands of engineers working around the clock.
A flood does not have to topple a mobile mast to disrupt communications. It can cut commercial power, damage underground fibre cables, prevent technicians from reaching equipment, or isolate generator sites. The resilience of the entire network depends on every one of these moving parts continuing to work together.
That is why resilience is no longer just an engineering issue. It is a national security issue and, increasingly, a climate change issue.
As extreme weather events become more frequent, Ghana must begin treating communications infrastructure as critical national infrastructure that deserves the same attention we give to roads, bridges and energy systems.
Resilience starts long before the first storm clouds gather. Telecommunications operators invest in flood-risk assessments, backup power systems, redundant fibre routes and climate-resilient infrastructure. When severe weather is forecast, they activate contingency plans, position maintenance teams, test generators and intensify network monitoring.
Once disaster strikes, sophisticated Network Operations Centres monitor alarms around the clock, reroute traffic around damaged infrastructure, dispatch engineers and prioritise repairs. Most customers never see this work taking place. In fact, the better these teams perform, the less anyone notices.
Perhaps that is the greatest irony of resilient telecommunications. Success is measured not by what people see, but by what they never have to experience.
The recent floods also exposed an important gap in our national conversation. Discussions about disaster resilience usually focus on drainage systems, electricity and transport infrastructure, yet communications rarely feature prominently. That is a mistake. Every emergency service depends on reliable communications. Without them, rescue operations slow, financial transactions stall and vital information fails to reach the people who need it most.
There are encouraging signs. The National Communications Authority, with support from the United Nations World Food Programme, is developing Ghana’s first National Emergency Telecommunications Plan. This initiative has the potential to strengthen preparedness and improve coordination before, during and after disasters. But the plan should not remain merely a policy document. It must be fully integrated into Ghana’s broader climate adaptation and disaster management strategy.
Government also has a role to play by ensuring stronger coordination between regulators, emergency agencies and telecommunications operators. The regulator should continue developing resilience standards that encourage network redundancy, regular disaster simulations and business continuity planning. Operators, meanwhile, must continue investing in resilient power systems, diversified transmission routes and periodic climate-risk assessments.
Universities and research institutions also have an opportunity to contribute by studying how climate change affects telecommunications infrastructure and developing locally appropriate resilience models.
Climate change is forcing every country to rethink how it protects its critical infrastructure. Ghana cannot afford to wait until communications fail during a national emergency before recognising their importance.
The strongest communications networks are often the ones that never make the headlines. Their greatest achievement is that, even in moments of crisis, they quietly keep emergency responders connected, businesses operating and families in touch.
That is precisely why telecommunications resilience deserves a central place in Ghana’s national conversation on climate adaptation. It is no longer simply an engineering concern. It is a public good, a national asset and an essential foundation for the country’s digital future.
By Theodore P. Yebuah
