Flood begins with rain but disasters start with us

When the floodwaters swept through parts of Ghana on Monday, June 29, they carried away more than furniture and household belongings. They washed away years of hard work, children’s school books, market goods, and family savings and, tragically, claimed lives.

For the families that lost loved ones, no amount of assistance can replace the pain of the silence left behind by someone who got lost during the torrential rains.

For many other survivors, the ordeal did not end when the rains stopped, but rather will have the Herculean task of rebuilding their lives from almost nothing.

Mothers searched through debris for anything they could salvage. Children stood quietly beside damaged homes, unsure of when life would return to normal. Traders who lost their wares stared helplessly at soaked goods that represented their only source of income.

This is the situation whenever it rains continuously for hours, yet, once the waters recede, many of the behaviours that contribute to these disasters return.

Drains once cleared become clogged with plastic waste. Waterways are treated as dumping sites, while buildings continue to spring up on wetlands and natural drainage channels.

Effects on women, children

For many women, particularly market traders, farmers and owners of small businesses, the floods had erased years of hard work in a matter of hours.

Merchandise have been destroyed, equipment damaged, and incomes disappear overnight.

With many women working in the informal sector and having limited financial protection, recovery is often slow and difficult.

Beyond the economic losses, women frequently carry the added burden of caring for their families during and after disasters. They clean flood-damaged homes, care for children, older relatives and the sick, secure food and water under difficult circumstances, and help restore a sense of normalcy while coping with their own trauma.

Children are equally vulnerable. Floods disrupt their education by damaging schools and making roads impassable. Many children are displaced from their homes, exposing them to health risks, emotional distress and unsafe living conditions.

For children from already vulnerable households, a flood has deepened poverty and interrupted their development in ways that last long after the waters have receded.

Human activities

The scale of destruction witnessed during floods is often magnified by human behaviour.

Drains designed to carry storm water are clogged with plastic waste, discarded household items and other refuse.

Wetlands and natural waterways are encroached upon through unplanned development, leaving floodwaters with nowhere to go.

Although floods affect everyone in their path, women and children often suffer the greatest consequences.

Climate Change

Climate change has made rainfall more intense and unpredictable, but it is the actions of humans that often turn heavy rains into humanitarian disasters.

As the nation reflects on the devastation caused by the recent floods, one question demands urgent attention: How much of this destruction could have been prevented?

Climate change and increasingly intense rainfall are undeniable factors, the uncomfortable truth is that many of these disasters are worsened by human actions.

Choked drains, indiscriminate waste disposal and the encroachment on waterways continue to turn heavy rains into avoidable tragedies.

Climate change has undoubtedly increased the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, but it is only one part of the story.

UNICEF report

These concerns are reflected in UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Report 2026, which warns that hundreds of millions of children worldwide face multiple climate hazards, including flooding.

According to the report, climate-related disasters threaten children’s health, education, nutrition and protection, with children in vulnerable communities facing the greatest risks.

The report also highlights how existing inequalities often compound the impact of climate emergencies on women and children.

Floodwaters contaminated by waste also increase the risk of outbreaks of cholera, typhoid, diarrhoea and malaria. Pregnant women, nursing mothers, young children, older persons and people living with disabilities are particularly susceptible to these health threats.

United Nations (UN) Women notes that women and children are often disproportionately affected by climate-related disasters because they are more likely to experience poverty, carry greater caregiving responsibilities and have fewer resources to recover from disasters.

When floods destroy livelihoods, existing inequalities become even more pronounced. The painful truth is that many of these losses are avoidable.

Way forward

No drainage system, regardless of how well designed, can function effectively if it is filled with refuse. No flood prevention programme can succeed if wetlands continue to be reclaimed for construction or if sanitation regulations are ignored.

Preventing floods is therefore not the responsibility of government alone. It requires a collective commitment from every citizen.

Proper waste disposal, regular community clean-up exercises, respect for planning regulations and the protection of waterways are simple but powerful actions that can save lives.

Government must equally strengthen waste management systems, enforce environmental and building regulations without compromise, invest in climate-resilient infrastructure and ensure that disaster preparedness and response strategies address the specific needs of women, children and other vulnerable groups.

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has repeatedly emphasised that reducing disaster risk is far less costly than responding to disasters after they occur.

Investing in prevention, strengthening institutions and promoting responsible environmental practices remain among the most effective ways of protecting lives and livelihoods.

The recent floods should serve as more than another headline. They should be a national wake-up call.

Climate change may be beyond the control of any one individual, but how we treat our environment is not. Every plastic bottle thrown into a drain, every illegal structure erected on a waterway and every act of indiscriminate dumping contributes to a cycle of destruction that claims lives and undermines national development.

If Ghana is to break that cycle, environmental responsibility must become a shared national value.

By Esinam Jemima Kuatsinu