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The Ghanaian economy loses $200 million yearly over floods and droughts – Research reveals
A research has revealed that Ghana loses $200 million annually over floods and drought.
A flood area in Ghana
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The PRP was conducted by researchers from the CIMA Research Foundation in four African countries namely; Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, and Angola.
The Programme Management Officer of Risk Knowledge, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) Regional Office for Africa, Ms Katrina Mouakkid Soltesova, revealed the analysis at the opening of a five-day Regional Level Disaster Risk Reduction (DDR) workshop dubbed; “Building Resilience of Natural Hazards in Sub-Saharan African Regions, Countries and Communities”, on Monday, November 19, 2018.
She said, “Projecting to a not so distant future in 2050, the potential Gross Domestic Product to be adversely affected by floods will increase more than five times.”
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Ms Soltesova said that, scrutinizing detailed results related to floods, the agricultural sector would see a loss of $20 million per year, adding that, “this is in absolute terms whereas in relative terms it is a loss of up to 0.3 per cent.”
She explained that, looking at flood related losses, the highest, in absolute terms, are predicted for the service sector – accounting for $35 million. “It is followed closely by the housing and transportation sectors,” she said, explaining that, “some eight per cent of the population are potentially affected in the drought results under the present climate.”
“In a future climate and taking into consideration socio-economic projections, the number of affected people could triple to reach 28 per cent of Ghana’s population,” Ms Soltesova said.
She said that equated to more than 10 million persons per year affected by drought, while potential losses to crops were estimated at 1.1 per cent at present climate conditions and 1.3 per cent under future climate.
Ms Soltesova said, “Our focus, therefore, ought to be on disaster risk proofing of relevant public and private investments, both national and international.”
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“Early findings of a DDR-sensitive analysis of Ghana’s national budget indicates that public investment specifically aimed at reducing disaster risk amounts to an annual average of $118 million,” and, “this is roughly two per cent of Ghana’s national budget, an average for the period 2016 to 2018.”
The event was initiated by the UNISDR, in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), and brought together Ghanaian experts from several ministries and agencies to discuss the Probabilistic Risk Profile (PRP) of Ghana in the face of floods and droughts.
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