The Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Intelligence Centre, Kwadwo Twum Boafo, explaining the flooding situation in Accra, has said structures like Villagio should never have been built.
According to Kwadwo Twum Boafo, the site where Villagio used to be located was a whole was a wetland, but was later filled with laterite for structures to be built on the wetland.
Speaking on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana, Kwadwo Twum Boafo, explained, “So I’ll give you a prime example. Villagio should never have been built. Because if you are old enough to remember, that whole place was marsh. When I say marshland, I mean a wetland.
And the runoff from the Akuapim Hills used to go there. Then we allowed somebody to come and surcharge the soil when I say surcharge the soil, fill that marsh with laterite so that he could build that structure.”
“So what simply happens now is every time it rains, the runoff… You can’t cheat the runoff. It will still come, and it will flood that side of Accra.”
“Do a simple experiment. Put water in this cup here and put this bottle inside it and see what happens… there’ll be an overflow.”
Kwadwo Twum Boafo further added, “Our relationship with natural greenery areas like the Korle Lagoon is terrible. Who made the decision to turn the Korle Lagoon into a [drain]? … Because you put cement on the embankments, so it’s not semi-permeable anymore. God does not do anything just like that”.
He explains natural drainage, salinity, and osmosis in lagoons, noting that concreting them creates barriers.
He further explained, “We have allowed people to build in wetlands. Go to the Ramsar sites… some of our best people were willing Ramsar sites to their relatives.”
Kwadwo Twum Boafo further explained that the whole of Holland was under the water table, but they were able to engineer the country properly to allow the drainage systems to work.
“Anybody who has been to Holland… Netherlands means the lowlands. The whole of Holland is under the water table. But what happens, they have engineered that country properly to allow for the drainage systems to work”, he added.
Meanwhile, Annan Perry, a personal assistant to the CEO of Goldbod, Sammy Gyamfi, has called for demolishing several longstanding Accra neighbourhoods to address the flooding situation in Ghana’s capital.
In his post on X, Annan Perry demanded that structures in Alajo, Nima, Christian Village, Tudu, Accra Newtown, Kaneshie First Light, and Mallam Junction need to be demolished.
Annan Perry, in his post, wrote, “Alajo must go down
Nima must go down
Christian village must go down
Tudu must go down
Accra Newtown must go down
Kaneshie’s first light must go down
Mallam junction must go down
Add any area you think must be collapsed to help fix the flooding issue”.
His post the heavy rains on June 3, which caused severe flooding across parts of the city.
However, replies under his post suggested alternatives rather than demolitions.
Watch the video below:
Structures like Villagio should have never been built – Kwadwo Twum Boafo on flooding in Accra#GoodMorningGhana #MetroTV pic.twitter.com/E5xzgZAWLL
— Metro TV Ghana (@metrotvgh) May 29, 2026
