The Parliamentary Select Committee on Local Government and Rural Development has called for closer collaboration between Parliament and Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to address the growing threat of flooding in Accra.

According to the committee, rapid urbanisation, indiscriminate waste disposal, and the construction of buildings on waterways had become major challenges confronting local authorities and required coordinated action from both legislators and assemblies.

“The recent issues regarding flooding, which have arisen as a result of rapid urbanisation and its attendant problems, indiscriminate disposal of waste, and building on waterways, call for collaboration between legislators and the MMDAs to find a lasting solution to this potentially huge problem,” the Chairperson of the committee, Queenstar Maame Pokua Sawyerr, said.

She made the call during a capacity-building and oversight engagement between the committee and MMDAs in the Greater Accra Region .

The engagement formed part of the committee’s constitutional mandate to provide oversight, promote accountability, and support effective local governance and rural development across the country.

As part of the engagement, the participants were allowed to openly share their experiences, challenges, and recommendations to help shape future policy decisions and strengthen local governance.

Policy interventions

Mrs Sawyerr, who is also the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Agona East, noted that as the country’s administrative and economic hub, the Greater Accra Region presented unique opportunities, as well as complex governance challenges.

She said the committee was particularly interested in understanding how assemblies were responding to the flooding challenge and how Parliament could support the development of appropriate legislation and policy interventions.

Strict enforcement

The Ranking Member of the committee and New Patriotic Party(NPP) MP for Bantama, Francis Asenso-Boakye, stressed the need for assemblies to strictly enforce planning regulations to reduce flooding.

He expressed concern that some assemblies continued to approve developments on waterways despite the well-known risks associated with such practices.

“Greater Accra is a low-lying area, yet assembly officials are approving permits for people to build on waterways,” he said.

Mr Asenso-Boakye said while investments in drainage infrastructure remained necessary, stronger enforcement of settlement planning schemes and continuous monitoring were equally important.

He also called for greater accountability in the use of public resources allocated to assemblies, stressing that Parliament had a duty to ensure development projects delivered value for money and addressed the real needs of communities.

He described local assemblies as central to the country’s development efforts, noting that improvements in service delivery and infrastructure development largely depended on the effectiveness of local authorities.