Updated June 4, 2015 7:48 p.m. ET
Floods shut down the capital of Ghana and caused a fire that killed more than 100 people, as Accra’s colonial-era sewers struggled to clear water from a city that has doubled in size over recent decades.
A moderate rain on Wednesday afternoon turned into a citywide disaster that evening, as roads, including the main boulevard that encircles the city of four million people, pooled with water, residents said. As dozens of people sought shelter at a gas station, the station flooded, then exploded, burning many alive in a blaze that firefighters worked overnight to put out, according to the state-owned Daily Graphic. Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama said as many as 150 people are thought to have died, according to the Associated Press.
On Thursday morning, the seaside city—a banking and data-processing hub for West Africa—was widely inundated with water that had yet to trickle out through clogged drainage ditches. Residents described seeing cars that had been abandoned, or had been washed into gutters, and a children’s hospital had also flooded.
“There’s a general feeling of helplessness,” said Joseph Oduru-Frimpong, an anthropology professor at the local Ashesi University. “And we have another bout of rains coming.”
Accra is one of West Africa’s most popular bases for multinational companies, whose staff enjoy its sushi parlors, tapas bars, and American-style cineplexes, all recent arrivals here. But below the city, its infrastructure is flagging: Power has been off two-thirds of the time since January, because until recently, Accra received almost all of its electricity from a 49-year-old hydrodam that hadn’t been getting enough rain. Stoplights are frequently out, jamming up roads that haven’t been broadened. The port is perpetually backlogged, shippers say.
The city’s sewers are especially old. Almost all are open gutters about a foot wide, many of them dating back to British colonial rule, which ended in 1957. They haven’t been able to keep up: Accra’s population has doubled since 1990, the government says, with tossed-up neighborhoods blocking waterways. Floods, and cholera epidemics that follow, have been an increasingly seasonal occurrence here.
“Year in, year out, this continues to happen,” said President Mahama, touring the burned-down gas station on Thursday, in comments carried by the state-owned newspaper. “Until we attack it scientifically and strategically we will continue to have this problem.”
As far back as the early 1970s, Ghana’s government—then led by Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia—had drafted plans to widen the city’s sewers. But Mr. Busia was overthrown during an eye appointment in London by a military regime that, like the ones who followed, hardly invested in drainage. Democratic administrations since 1992 have invested the country’s capital into expanding the civil service, more than infrastructure like sewage.
These days, many residents dump trash in the ditches, because trash collection is inconsistent. Mosquitoes breed in them, and spread malaria.
Nearby Lagos, in Nigeria, and Dakar, the capital of Senegal, also frequently flood for the same reason.
“It should have been fixed a long time ago,” said Sydney Casely-Hayford, a consultant to the finance ministry. “All the c**p gathers in one place and chokes the outlet to the sea.”
On Tuesday, the city hosted a conference for Africa’s mayors, hosted by Accra’s Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, who was this year named Africa’s best mayor, in an award bestowed by Angola’s President José Eduardo dos Santos. That country’s capital, Luanda, flooded in March.
Write to Drew Hinshaw at drew.hinshaw@wsj.com
Corrections & Amplifications:
British colonial rule over Ghana ended in 1957. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said British rule ended in 1960. (June 4, 2015)
Floods shut down the capital of Ghana and caused a fire that killed more than 100 people, as Accra’s colonial-era sewers struggled to clear water from a city that has doubled in size over recent decades.
A moderate rain on Wednesday afternoon turned into a citywide disaster that evening, as roads, including the main boulevard that encircles the city of four million people, pooled with water, residents said. As dozens of people sought shelter at a gas station, the station flooded, then exploded, burning many alive in a blaze that firefighters worked overnight to put out, according to the state-owned Daily Graphic. Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama said as many as 150 people are thought to have died, according to the Associated Press.
On Thursday morning, the seaside city—a banking and data-processing hub for West Africa—was widely inundated with water that had yet to trickle out through clogged drainage ditches. Residents described seeing cars that had been abandoned, or had been washed into gutters, and a children’s hospital had also flooded.
“There’s a general feeling of helplessness,” said Joseph Oduru-Frimpong, an anthropology professor at the local Ashesi University. “And we have another bout of rains coming.”
Accra is one of West Africa’s most popular bases for multinational companies, whose staff enjoy its sushi parlors, tapas bars, and American-style cineplexes, all recent arrivals here. But below the city, its infrastructure is flagging: Power has been off two-thirds of the time since January, because until recently, Accra received almost all of its electricity from a 49-year-old hydrodam that hadn’t been getting enough rain. Stoplights are frequently out, jamming up roads that haven’t been broadened. The port is perpetually backlogged, shippers say.
The city’s sewers are especially old. Almost all are open gutters about a foot wide, many of them dating back to British colonial rule, which ended in 1957. They haven’t been able to keep up: Accra’s population has doubled since 1990, the government says, with tossed-up neighborhoods blocking waterways. Floods, and cholera epidemics that follow, have been an increasingly seasonal occurrence here.
“Year in, year out, this continues to happen,” said President Mahama, touring the burned-down gas station on Thursday, in comments carried by the state-owned newspaper. “Until we attack it scientifically and strategically we will continue to have this problem.”
As far back as the early 1970s, Ghana’s government—then led by Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia—had drafted plans to widen the city’s sewers. But Mr. Busia was overthrown during an eye appointment in London by a military regime that, like the ones who followed, hardly invested in drainage. Democratic administrations since 1992 have invested the country’s capital into expanding the civil service, more than infrastructure like sewage.
These days, many residents dump trash in the ditches, because trash collection is inconsistent. Mosquitoes breed in them, and spread malaria.
Nearby Lagos, in Nigeria, and Dakar, the capital of Senegal, also frequently flood for the same reason.
“It should have been fixed a long time ago,” said Sydney Casely-Hayford, a consultant to the finance ministry. “All the c**p gathers in one place and chokes the outlet to the sea.”
On Tuesday, the city hosted a conference for Africa’s mayors, hosted by Accra’s Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, who was this year named Africa’s best mayor, in an award bestowed by Angola’s President José Eduardo dos Santos. That country’s capital, Luanda, flooded in March.
Write to Drew Hinshaw at drew.hinshaw@wsj.com
Corrections & Amplifications:
British colonial rule over Ghana ended in 1957. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said British rule ended in 1960. (June 4, 2015)
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