Former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong‑Boateng, has warned that Ghana’s failure to establish a functioning waste collection system is worsening the country’s flood crisis.
Delivering the 14th Commemorative Anniversary Lecture in honour of the late President John Evans Atta Mills at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) on July 22, 2026, Prof Frimpong‑Boateng said the recurring floods in Greater Accra are as the result of persistent neglect of waste management.
"The floods that struck Greater Accra in the last week of June and the first week of July this year are a distressing illustration of the same institutional neglect. Ghana has no serious system for collecting waste at the point of generation and moving it to disposal, recycling, or power generation sites," he noted.
He explained that despite repeated warnings, little has been done to address the problem.
‘Prof Mills sacked me twice from office’ - Professor Frimpong-Boateng recounts
Citing areas in the Greater Accra Region that have long been classified as flood‑prone, he stressed that inadequate action has left communities vulnerable, stating that residents have been left to encroach on them.
"Ghana’s own land use planning framework classifies certain areas as flood‑prone and reserves them as protected open space.
"...Yet across Greater Accra, all the seven planned flood retention ponds in Papao, Madina, Oshiyie, Adjiriganor, two in Ashale Botwe, University Farms, and Ashaiman have all been encroached upon," he stressed.
He added that if the country cannot confront such a menace, it will be unable to sustain the vision the late President Prof Mills held during his lifetime.
"Madam Chair, a nation that cannot summon the discipline to manage its waste and protect its wetlands cannot, by any stretch of imagination, undertake the disciplined, sustained project of national development that Professor Mills envisioned," Prof Boateng said.
Watch his comments on GhanaWeb TV below:
VKB/VPO
Transitions MD Cornelius Genevieve explains vision behind Tema expansion
Transitions serves over 2,000 direct and indirect clients weekly - MD
Copyright © 1994 - 2026 GhanaWeb. All rights reserved.
