Last Tuesday at 4 PM, the Odaw River left its banks and entered people’s bedrooms in Adabraka. By 5 PM, videos of submerged cars at Kwame Nkrumah Circle were online. By 6 PM, the prayer chains had started.
“God have mercy.”
“We bind this rain in Jesus’ name.”
“Ghana needs divine intervention.”
By 8 PM, the same people sharing prayer requests were dumping their evening trash into the very gutter that had just overflowed.
Here’s the hard truth Accra doesn’t want to hear: Prayers don’t solve flooding issues created by people building in drainage areas and throwing rubbish anyhow.
God didn’t issue the permit for that church on the Odaw buffer. God didn’t drop that takeaway pack into the Korle drain. We did. And no amount of anointing oil will unclog a culvert stuffed with pure water sachets.
1. Heaven Helps Those Who Don’t Block Drains
Walk through Nima, Maamobi, or parts of Old Fadama after any rain. The problem isn’t spiritual. It’s physical.
a. We build where water sleeps
Act 925 says you cannot build within 60 meters of the Odaw. Yet since 2020, over 500 new structures – homes, shops, mosques, even a police post – have gone up inside that red zone. Each one has a foundation in a waterway and a prayer point on the wall.
Water doesn’t read “No Trespassing” signs. It follows gravity. When you steal its path, it rents your living room. You can speak in tongues all night. The water will still be ankle-deep by morning.
b. We treat gutters like dustbins
AMA spends GHS 4.5 million a year desilting major drains. It lasts two months. Why? Because Accra produces 3,000 metric tons of waste daily, and about 1,000 tons never make it to a dump. It makes it to the nearest gutter.
One plastic bottle costs 20 pesewas. Removing it from the Odaw after it causes a flood costs GHS 5. We are a city that will pay GHS 5 to remove a 20 pesewa mistake, then blame the devil. The devil is in the details – and the details are in the drain.
2. The Theology of Trash
There’s a strange religion in Accra. It goes like this:
1. Dump refuse at night.
2. Blame government when it rains.
3. Call a pastor to pray against “marine spirits” causing floods.
4. Repeat next June.
We have baptized irresponsibility. The same trader who sweeps her shop and dumps it in the median will be first in line at the 31st Night service to “decree against flooding.”
Proverbs 27:12 says, “The prudent see danger and take refuge.” It doesn’t say, “The prudent see danger and start a 21-day fast.” Noah didn’t pray the flood away. He built an ark. He cleared the land. He worked.
3. The Pastors Aren’t Helping
Too many pulpits are complicit. When Circle floods, some prophets declare it “a sign of the end times” instead of a sign of blocked drains. Congregations are told to “sow a seed against flood” instead of being told to stop sowing plastic in gutters.
If your church is built on a waterway, your first sermon should be a demolition notice, not a deliverance service. God is not mocked. You cannot break His natural laws and ask Him to suspend them for your convenience.
There are exceptions. Churches in South La and Teshie now run “Clean Your Gutter” Saturdays. The Muslim community in Nima organized monthly desilting with Imams leading. That is faith with works. James 2:17 wasn’t joking.
4. What Prayer Can’t Do, Policy Must
a. Demolish, then disciple
We need a “No Tears Demolition” policy. Give every illegal structure on a waterway 90 days and a relocation package. On day 91, bring the bulldozers and the cameras. One televised demolition at Avenor will do more than 1,000 prayer meetings. After that, let the pastors counsel the displaced. But first, move the water.
b. Jail one, save a thousand
Arrest one district engineer who signed a permit for a building on the Korle buffer. Try him under Act 925. Put him in Nsawam. The next 100 engineers will remember that their pen can drown people. We have jailed people for stealing goats. We haven’t jailed one person for issuing permits that kill people in floods.
c. Pay the youth to pray with rakes
Take GHS 10 million from the Sanitation Ministry and pay 20,000 young people GHS 500 a month to desilt tertiary drains daily. Call it “National Drain Service.” Rwanda did it. Kigali is clean. Their secret isn’t more prayer. It’s more brooms.
5. The Real Spiritual Warfare Is Against Laziness
The Odaw doesn’t flood because the marine kingdom is strong. It floods because the enforcement kingdom is weak.
You want to bind something? Bind the landguard who sells waterway plots.
You want to cast out? Cast out the AMA officer who takes GHS 200 to look away.
You want to anoint? Anoint the head of the teenager who thinks the gutter is a bin.
Until then, every June will be the same: rain falls, Accra drowns, we pray, we blame, we bury. And next year, we do it again.
God gave us brains to engineer, hands to clean, and laws to enforce. When we refuse to use all three and expect a miracle instead, that’s not faith. That’s testing God.
And the Book is clear on that too.
The writer is an Accra-based civic educator and sanitation volunteer. He has helped desilt drains in Maamobi for 4 years. No floods yet. No prayer meeting needed.
Do this today: Walk outside. If there’s trash in the gutter in front of your house or shop, pick it up. That’s more spiritual than 2 hours of tongues. Water respects action, not accents.
Alexander Afriyie, Supervising Editor, Ghanacrimereport.com and Ghanatalk.com