Perennial Flooding in Accra: A reflection of Ghana's changing environmental culture

Growing up, one of the common definitions of culture was that it refers to the way of life of a group of people, their beliefs, values, customs, and traditions.

At its core, culture is shaped by norms and values that guide people's judgments about what is acceptable or unacceptable within society.

In Ghana, culture influences how people relate to authority, interact with one another, and perceive their obligations to the wider community.

According to the Dutch social psychologist, Geert Hofstede, culture can be understood as the "collective programming of the mind" that distinguishes members of one group from another.

Through his cultural dimensions theory, Hofstede argues that patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting are acquired throughout life and become a form of "mental software" that influences behaviour.

From this perspective, Ghanaian society has traditionally exhibited strong collectivist tendencies, where the welfare of the group often overrides individual interests.

Family ties, communal solidarity and shared responsibility have long been defining characteristics of social life.

These values translated in communal living, where communities organised collective labour, known among the Akan as nnoboa, to maintain public spaces, clear pathways, and clean waterways.

Every member understood that the wellbeing of the community depended on shared effort and mutual responsibility.

Not long ago, a similar initiative like National Sanitation Day was launched. The first Saturday of every month was dedicated to cleaning households, markets and densely populated areas.

Initially, these exercises were marked by strict supervision and broad participation.

Over time, however, enthusiasm declined, enforcement weakened, and participation became increasingly symbolic. Consequently, recent lifestyles and practices appear to challenge and undermine the values and norms that once bound communities together and preserved society.

The pressing question, therefore, is: what happens when these collective values begin to erode?

The annual scenes of overflowing drains, submerged homes, disrupted livelihoods, and preventable loss of life cannot be attributed solely to infrastructural deficiencies or climate change. Neither can they be explained entirely by cultural decline.

Scholarship suggests that Accra's flooding is shaped by the interaction of multiple factors, including rapid population growth, inadequate drainage infrastructure, weak urban planning, limited waste management capacity, and increasingly intense rainfall linked to climate variability.

Culture, therefore, should be understood not as the sole cause of flooding but as one of several interrelated factors that can either mitigate or exacerbate flood risk.

In contemporary urban centres such as Accra, the sense of collective ownership appears to have diminished. The quest for survival in the bustling city has made the popular saying, "Each for himself, God for us all," increasingly relatable.

A faction of residents now perceive sanitation as the sole responsibility of government officials and agencies, leading to the neglect of drains, public spaces, and shared infrastructure.

The weakening of communal values has transformed environmental stewardship from a civic obligation into an expectation placed almost exclusively on the state.

Is urbanisation and consumerism a recipe for disaster? Historically, Ghanaian communities protected rivers, wetlands and forests through customary laws, taboos, and indigenous systems of environmental governance.

These practices, including the reverence accorded to certain water bodies, served as effective conservation mechanisms that maintained ecological balance.

However, rapid urbanisation and modernisation have displaced many of these traditions, leading to the encroachment of wetlands that once acted as natural flood buffers.

In the process, society has lost not only vital ecological assets but also the environmental values of restraint, reverence and sustainability that once guided human interaction with nature. Empirical studies support these observations.

GIS-based flood risk assessments in the Accra Metropolitan Area found that residents themselves identified poor waste disposal practices and clogged drainage channels as major contributors to flooding.

Similarly, geomorphological studies of flood-prone areas such as Gbawe and Mallam identify deficient drainage networks, wetland degradation, indiscriminate waste disposal, and the elimination of vegetation cover as factors that aggravate flood events.

What makes this phenomenon particularly troubling is that many residents understand the consequences of indiscriminate dumping, yet the practice persists. These contradiction raises profound cultural questions.

Has convenience become more important than communal wellbeing?

The persistence of these practices suggests the emergence of what may be described as a culture of environmental indifference, a social condition in which personal convenience overrides collective interest and public spaces are treated as belonging to no one in particular.

Such a way of life stands in sharp contrast to the norms and values upon which indigenous Ghanaian society was built.

Environmental responsibility cannot be outsourced entirely to the state; it requires active citizenship and a recognition that protecting the common good is the duty of all.

Perennial flooding, which has increasingly become a threat to national security and livelihoods, is further compounded by the inconsistent enforcement of planning and environmental regulations.

Flood-prone areas continue to be occupied, while unauthorised developments often proceed with little resistance. Cultural tendencies towards kinship obligations, reciprocity, favouritism, and the avoidance of confrontation can influence compliance and enforcement.

Officials may hesitate to sanction relatives, acquaintances, political allies, or influential community members for fear of damaging social relationships or being perceived as insensitive. Communities, in turn, may normalise illegal developments because "it is our own person" or because challenging such acts risks social isolation.

This reflects what may be termed a culture of social accommodation: a social orientation in which preserving interpersonal harmony and maintaining networks of obligation supersede adherence to impersonal rules and regulations.

While these values are rooted in compassion, solidarity, and mutual support, they can become dysfunctional when they undermine justice, accountability, and public safety.

In such circumstances, regulations cease to function as universal standards and instead become negotiable instruments subject to social influence.

The result is selective enforcement, weakened institutions, and the gradual normalisation of behaviours that increase collective vulnerability to disasters such as flooding.

Although appreciable efforts have been made to address flooding in Ghana, the challenge requires a holistic approach grounded in a shared national will, as expressed in our National Pledge to hold in high esteem our heritage won through the toil of our forebears.

Sankofa, often translated as, "It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten," offers a powerful framework for reimagining Ghana's response to perennial flooding.

Sankofa does not advocate a romantic return to the past; rather, it encourages societies to retrieve valuable lessons from their heritage to build a better future.

The nation must reclaim and adapt the positive cultural values that once strengthened communities: communal labour, environmental stewardship, accountability to future generations, respect for common property, and traditional ecological knowledge.

However, cultural renewal alone is insufficient. These values must be institutionalised through robust civic education, sustained behavioural change campaigns, and the revival of structured community sanitation initiatives with clear responsibilities and measurable outcomes.

Environmental ethics should be integrated into school curricula and public discourse, while local authorities should create incentives that recognise and reward community-led environmental stewardship. Town councils “Tankas” should be reinstated for regular monitoring and summoning.

Equally important is the consistent and impartial enforcement of planning and environmental regulations.

Building codes must apply irrespective of social status, political affiliation, or kinship ties.

Encroachment on wetlands and waterways should attract sanctions that are transparent and predictable, while urban planning institutions should be adequately resourced to perform their mandates effectively.

Investments in drainage infrastructure, improved waste collection systems, wetland restoration, and climate-resilient urban planning must complement efforts to transform attitudes and behaviours.

Ultimately, the fight against flooding is not merely a technical undertaking; it is also a cultural project.

It demands citizens who are prepared to place the common good above individual convenience, institutions that uphold rules without fear or favour, and leaders who inspire both accountability and active citizenship.

In this regard, every Ghanaian must move from being a spectator of national challenges to becoming an active custodian of the nation we share.