June 29 Floods: 'This country is not rich enough to build emergency shelters' - Muntaka

Minister of the Interior, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, has said the intensity of the June 29 rainfall made flooding difficult to prevent, while stressing the need to realistically assess Ghana’s disaster response capacity.

“The only way this rain today could have been prevented from entering people’s homes was to turn the whole of Accra into a drain, because you can see it from the aerial view,” he said on JoyNews.

He also noted that Ghana has limited infrastructure for accommodating people displaced during emergencies.

“This country is not a rich country where we have shelters to collect people and put them there.

This country is not that rich. Let’s not run away from actual responsibility and face reality,” he said.

Muntaka said the flooding highlighted the need for continued planning and coordination among state institutions to improve emergency response, while acknowledging the country’s existing resource constraints.