Ross Osei Owusu, a member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) legal team, has said Accra is becoming the “dirtiest city” in the country due to worsening sanitation lapses, calling for urgent reforms and a bipartisan approach to addressing recurring flooding.

Osei Owusu said poor waste management, illegal construction on waterways and political polarisation were contributing to annual flooding in the capital and other parts of Ghana.

Speaking on The Forum on Asaase Radio on Saturday (30 May), Osei Owusu told host Wilberforce Asare that the problem was being driven largely by environmental neglect and weak enforcement of existing urban planning regulations.

He identified indiscriminate dumping of waste into gutters as a major factor worsening floods, saying rubbish was regularly washed into drainage systems during rainfall, blocking water flow.

“When it rains, all this rubbish is collected and they end up in the drains. And once it is blocked, the water overflows its banks and it creates a problem for us,” he said.

Osei Owusu urged stronger public discipline in waste disposal practices, warning that continued neglect would deepen the country’s flooding challenges.

“As a people we need to be very mindful of how we treat our environment, how we handle our garbage disposal,” he said.

He also criticised what he described as the politicisation of flooding and other environmental issues, saying it undermined efforts to find lasting solutions.

He compared the situation to illegal mining, known locally as galamsey, where blame is often shifted between political parties depending on who is in power.

“This flooding issue is something that must be really looked at and confronted in a bipartisan way, in a manner that does not suggest that we want to play politics with it,” he said.

Osei Owusu warned that Accra, once widely regarded as one of Ghana’s cleaner cities, was deteriorating due to sanitation challenges.

He also raised concerns about the public health risks associated with flooding, including the spread of waterborne diseases, and called for urgent collective action.

Also on the programme was the Director of the Democracy Project at the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), John Osae-Kwapong, who said that rather than introducing new regulations, there is a need to review existing frameworks and strengthen enforcement measures.

“It may not be so much new policies, new rules and new laws, but taking stock of what we have and how best we can really enforce those things,” he said.

He also urged political leaders to demonstrate the resolve needed to enforce planning regulations, even when doing so may attract criticism.

“It may require difficult choices and difficult decisions. There needs to be political will to do that regardless of the backlash,” he said.

Flooding remains a recurring challenge in Ghana, particularly during the rainy season, with experts often citing poor drainage infrastructure, rapid urbanisation and construction on waterways among the main causes.