An urban development planner, Kofi Kekeli Amedzro, warns that unsafe building approvals are still being issued in Ghana despite clear land-use planning rules.

This raises fresh concerns after Monday’s devastating floods that killed 18 people and destroyed properties in Accra, the Central Region and other parts of the country.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Tuesday, he said development control is guided by law, but weak enforcement and political interference are undermining safety standards.

“Ideally, before anyone should build, as the Land Use and Spatial Planning Act says, any form of development before it comes up, that development must conform with the land use plan of the area.”

He explained that approval processes are meant to be handled by technical committees at district level, made up of experts including planners and engineers.

“And if you are talking about the ownership alone does, it not determine the land use, so once an area has been designated or planned for a particular zone, the district assembly, what we call the special planning committee, that is made up of planners, engineers, EPA, other professionals, geologists, and what have you, who sit on the panel to decide on the permit, do that based on the plan that has been prepared for that specific area,” he said.

But he warned that in practice, local planning systems often collapse due to missing or incomplete local layouts and enforcement gaps.

“But the challenge is that at some time when you are looking at it from a point of skill at the regional perspective within those areas they might be zoned as green areas or green belt buffers, but if it comes to the local assembly level, where it’s supposed to cascade down to the local plans for them to designate those places as green areas or nature reserves, and what have you, sometimes there are gaps.”

He added that in the absence of proper planning documents, informal influences often take over decision-making.

“You go there, and you request the local plan, specifically for those areas, and they are absent. So, in the absence of these things, sometimes the land owners, through their politics and what have you, get their way, and they do what they want to do,” he said.

Kekeli Amedzro further warned that powerful individuals are sometimes behind developments in restricted or unsafe zones.

“So, it’s very difficult for the district assembly sometimes to enforce this, as you’ve rightly pointed out, and as you are aware of.

"So, when you go to these areas, even when you do analysis, the gradient again from a planning perspective, from where they are to build, is far beyond the normal expectations. Yet you go there, and they are building,” he said.

He stressed that these technical and political failures are preventing proper implementation of development plans, even in areas clearly marked as unsafe for construction, a situation experts say is worsening flood risks nationwide.