Member of Parliament for Awutu Senya West, Gizella Tetteh Agbotui, has called for the urgent restoration of Accra's wetlands and the enforcement of planning regulations to curb the recurring floods that continue to claim lives and destroy property.
Contributing to a statement on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday, July 1, 2026, the lawmaker said Ghana had the technical expertise to address flooding but lacked the political will and sustained funding to implement lasting solutions.
She began by expressing condolences to families affected by the recent floods, urging Ghanaians not to reduce the tragedy to mere statistics.
"I join all my colleagues here in expressing my sympathies, my extreme sympathies to all the families who have lost children, wives, mothers. Sometimes we tend to use statistics to refer to the losses, but everybody had a name," she said.
According to the MP, successive governments share responsibility for the country's persistent flooding challenges, noting that several interventions initiated over the years have failed to produce the desired impact.
"Successive governments can carry the blame. It does not end with the current government that is on the seat right now because there have been programmes and projects over the years. If they had been successful, we would not be where we are today," she stated.
Despite acknowledging past shortcomings, she stressed that the focus should now be on finding lasting solutions.
"But I don't want to complain too much because at the end of the day, there's work to be done and we have a problem to solve," she added.
The legislator said institutions such as the Ghana Hydrological Authority, the Ghana Institution of Engineering and the Ghana Institute of Architects possess the expertise needed to tackle flooding.
"What we need is funding, sustainable funding, and the willpower to do the necessary demolitions that have to be done, take the hard decisions that we have to take as a government, and we are rightly going to do so," she said.
A key part of the solution, according to Agbotui, is the restoration of wetlands that have been encroached upon over the years.
She revealed that six wetlands in Accra alone must be reclaimed to serve their natural purpose of retaining floodwaters.
"We have about six wetlands that have to be restored in Accra alone... The rivers must be given their room, and the streams must be given their space," she said.
The MP attributed the worsening floods to increasing encroachment on wetlands, explaining that the loss of these natural buffers has increased the speed at which runoff reaches the capital.
"Now, the speed at which the water comes into the capital city has increased because there's nothing to hold it back. And that is because there's been a lot of encroachment on those areas that were meant to be reserved as wetlands," she explained.
She served notice to developers and landowners occupying such areas, indicating that the government would reclaim the lands.
"So those wetlands that have been encroached, for those who have encroached, for those who have sold, please find a way of getting your money back, because the government is going to get them and use them for the right purpose," she warned.
Beyond reclaiming wetlands, Agbotui said lagoons and drainage channels must be dredged using sustainable, nature-based approaches instead of repeatedly spending public funds on desilting.
"We are going to implement nature-based solutions... We cannot be using money each and every year to be doing desilting, and then we come back to do the same desilting all over again," she stated.
The MP also pointed to unchecked development along riverbanks as a major contributor to flooding, citing Samreboi as an example.
"If you look at the pictures, you realise that within that flooding area, a lot of the roofs are new... These are new areas that people are developing in, and you can tell they are getting close to the river," she observed.
She explained that when rivers become silted and lose their capacity, floodwaters inevitably spill into nearby communities.
Concluding her remarks, Agbotui assured Ghanaians that the government was committed to providing relief for flood victims while pursuing long-term interventions, but appealed for timely budgetary releases to support the work.
"We have not slept. I just want to assure Ghanaians that we're going to do everything possible with the funding that has been provided for the disaster relief, but also the necessary budgetary allocations should kindly be given on time so that we can do what we have to do," she said.
She also urged citizens to change their waste disposal habits, lamenting the indiscriminate dumping of refuse into drains.
"There are videos. I saw one video. I actually thought it was a ship that was coming down the water channel, not knowing that it was a whole massive pack of rubbish that was floating down. And then it goes to get stuck at the end of the drain. What are we doing? Why are we doing this to ourselves?" she questioned.
NA/VPO
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