Authorities, planning experts and a member of parliament are pointing to illegal construction, failed enforcement of land-use regulations and inadequate early warning communication as the root causes of the flooding that submerged hundreds of homes in communities downstream of the Weija Dam this week.
Ghana Water Limited opened all spill gates at the Weija Dam on May 27, 2026 after water levels exceeded the 48-foot maximum operating threshold, triggering immediate flooding in Tetegu, Ashbread, Kinshasha, White Cross and surrounding communities in the Ga South Municipality. The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) confirmed on May 28 that power supply to several of those areas had been cut after floodwaters submerged distribution substations. Hundreds of families were displaced and forced to seek temporary shelter.
Stanley Martey, Communications Director of Ghana Water Limited, defended the decision to release water, saying the alternative would have been a dam collapse with far greater consequences.
“If we do not throw the excess water from the dam, the dam will break,” he told the Asaase Breakfast Show on Friday. He warned that a structural failure could wipe out entire downstream communities within minutes and leave western Accra without water supply for years while the dam was rebuilt.
Martey placed the blame for the scale of flooding squarely on encroachment and planning failures, not the spillage itself. He argued that people had built homes and structures directly in waterways and buffer zones, forcing water to divert into residential areas, and accused district assemblies of failing to stop illegal development. He expressed frustration at what he described as years of unenforced warnings.
Mohammed Alhassan Damba, a former president of the Ghana Institute of Planners, offered a more systemic diagnosis. He said the flooding represented a failure of governance rather than a natural disaster, noting that the outcome was entirely predictable given existing patterns of uncontrolled development.
“Planning has been done. The problem is implementation,” Damba said, adding that metropolitan development frameworks for the Greater Accra area have existed since the 1990s but are routinely ignored.
He identified a political dimension to the enforcement failure, arguing that illegal structures become increasingly difficult to remove once they multiply, creating a cycle in which authorities hesitate to act against widespread violations. He called for structures to be stopped at foundation stage, before political complications arise.
Member of Parliament for the Weija Dam area, Jerry Ahmed Shaib, brought a different concern to the debate, saying residents received no prior warning before the spillage and were caught entirely unprepared. He said he only became aware of what was happening when he was called to the Ashbread area and found homes and shops already submerged.
He compared the response unfavourably to previous years, saying coordinated communication in 2023 and 2024 had significantly reduced damage.
The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) disputed the MP’s account, saying warnings were issued and that residents had been informed, though the lack of advance action by many communities suggests the warnings did not reach all affected households in time.
The Ga Mantse has separately called for the arrest and prosecution of chiefs who sell land in waterways, while NADMO confirmed that demolition exercises targeting structures obstructing waterways are being planned. Authorities continue to urge residents in flood-prone areas to relocate as the Ghana Meteorological Agency forecasts further heavy rainfall over the Densu catchment.
