SOKODE GBOGAME FLOODS: Undersized Culvert, Poor Drainage To Blame For Disaster – Assembly member

Read Time: 7 minutes

By: Maxwell Woyram Tsigbe

Residents of Sokode Gbogame in the Volta Region have experienced an unprecedented flooding in the month of June this year (2025) after a heavy downpour submerged a stretch of the newly dualized Sokode-Ho highway, few meters away from the Gbogame roundabout. The incident impeded vehicular movement from both directions, increased travel time, and caused discomfort to both drivers and passengers who were stranded in an unusual traffic jam on the day.

How it happened

In the afternoon of Sunday, June 15, 2025, a cloudburst which lasted for more than four hours resulted in a devastating flooding within the outskirt settlement of the town. The flood completely submerged the median stretch between the Sokode Gbogame roundabout and the newly built Ho Municipal abattoir.

The flood hindered vehicular movement with cars stuck in a que of traffic jam and partially submerged in the gushing flood water. Not to fall victim to the rapid water current, commuters remain seated in their vehicles with less or no movement at all for fear of being swept off the road into the deep open-drain and carried away by the flood. Meanwhile, an empty articulated truck had to be rescued by the median curb as its wheels lost grip on the road due to the increasing volume of the flood water.

However, luck eluded some religious and economic establishments within the enclave such as the Global Evangelical Church – Miracle Chapel, and the Celestial Church of Christ as well as Malisanat Hotel and Gardens which could not evade the wrath of the flood. Excess rainwater water was equally gushing out of homes far away from the flooded stretch of the road.

According to Prophet Jaswell Amagbe Gabriel, the presiding priest of the Celestial Church of Christ, although there had been series of flooding in the area in recent years, the dualization of the road aggravated the June episode due to the poorly constructed drainage. He further explained that one of the gutters on the sides of the road hitherto the dualization was filled with gravel to broaden the space but was not replaced after the road was expanded. This among other drainage deficits he believed contributed to the intense flood.

“The cause of that problem – it is all about the bridge. If they are able to expand the bridge, if necessary expand the gutters too, the small small culverts that they did here they can expand it and expand the bridge; this is not a bridge, it’s like a gutter there, they should expand the bridge and make it a standard bridge then you’ll see that all the problems will be solved,” Prophet Amagbe assured.

He added, that the engineers of China Railways No. 5 – the company who dualized the road heeded not to the pleas and suggestions of concerned residents to expand the storm drains in anticipation of future torrential rains, and thus, carried through with their plans. Consequently, it rained and flooded the entire area. The situation brought the engineers back to site but only to take situational-assessment videos and photographs of the area without any remedy to avert recurrence.

Moreover, the District Pastor of the Global Evangelical Church – Miracle Chapel, Rev. Isaac Emenyo Mawulikplimi, also confirmed the perennial flooding in the area. According to him, since he was stationed in Sokode Gbogame in October 2022, there were few downpours that resulted in minimal flooding which led to the dredging of the Gblêmé Stream. He however blamed the devastating flood on the newly constructed culvert.

“What I realised is that, when the water is passing it carries some particles then the particles blocked the entrance of the culvert, and because the outlet is very small the water started coming back and before we realised the whole place was flooded,” Rev. Mawulikplimi recounted his observation.

Meanwhile, the Assembly member for Sokode Gbogame electoral area, MacBillions Bansah Dickson, narrated how he was patronised at the Department of Urban Roads (DUR) in Ho in his attempt to ensure quality work and value for money during the dualization of the 10.5km road project. According to him, he led a delegation of opinion-leaders and chiefs to the Department of Urban Roads (DUR) and told the engineer in charge that the carrying capacity of the new drains and culverts under construction cannot contain the volume of water that passes through the Gblémê stream whenever it rains. He thus suggested a twin-culvert instead of the single box-culvert being constructed as the main storm drain beneath the road.

However, to the delegation’s bewilderment, he (Mr. MacBillions Bansah) was asked; “Are you an engineer or an Assembly member?” – a sarcasm which sought to not only mock Mr. Bansah’s lack of professional architectural engineering knowledge but also to belittle his status as a local government, thus his opinion and suggestions were quashed. This confirmed how adamant the engineers were to effect changes in the approved plan for the dualization regardless of stakeholders’ experience-based recommendations against foreseeable future eventualities.

The Assembly member, MacBillions Bansah Dickson, further attributed the severity of the flood to residents’ indiscipline behaviours. He lamented the sale of parcels of land which are natural waterways by landowners to individuals who later build without Building Permits from the Assembly. He said his insistence on permit acquisition and efforts to prevent illegal siting of buildings have been misconstrued for abuse of power, arrogance, autocratic leadership, and further tagged as a “thorn in the flesh” of the said land developers.

Additionally, he said people upstream unhygienically dispose of garbage into the drains whenever the clouds start to form indicating a possible downpour in anticipation that the running rainwater will wash the refuse away. The drains are consequently clogged up with these waste materials preventing the passage of water or liquid wastes. This behaviour, he said, was as a result of some residents’ refusal to use the “polluter pay” system of proper waste disposal.

The way forward

He concluded, that perpetrators will soon face the law as reports have been presented to the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE). This suggests that a possible future demolition exercise will get rid of unauthorised buildings on waterways while polluters of the environment will be arrested to serve as a deterrent to others. Also, the newly appointed Regional Director of Urban Roads has assured of engineers’ return to site to reassess the drains on the flood-ridden stretch to see how best they can be worked on.

Meanwhile, all attempts to speak to the management of Malisanat Hotel and Gardens proved futile as they claimed the disaster had no adverse impact on their business except that their frontage had its share of the flood but was no big a cause for alarm. The aftermath of the flood left pockets of sand on the road as traces of intense erosion. A visual assessment of the culvert constructed during the road dualization project also revealed that the storm drain is undersized and unfit for purpose particularly during prolonged downpours.

It is very disheartening and a disgrace for a community admired for its properly coordinated settlement plan which laid out buildings evenly spaced with a drive-through vehicular mobility as though it had the blueprint of a modern-day estate, to be downgraded to a flood zone and a subject of ridicule.

It behoves the appropriate authorities to put measures in place to avert the recurrence of perennial flooding in the community so as to avoid the repercussions of this preventable crisis.

Highlights

Sokode Gbogame is a community within the Ho Municipal Assembly of the Volta Region, some kilometres away from the regional capital – Ho. It is one of the five (Sokode Etoe, Sokode Ando, Sokode Bagble, Sokode Gbogame, and Sokode Lokoe) traditional communities of Sokode located on the main Accra-to-Ho highway playing a pivotal role of a converging point for alternative routes which link the Greater Accra and Volta regions together.

When approaching the Gbogame roundabout from Ho, to your left is the road leading to all the communities within the Abutia traditional area through to Juapong which connects you back to the main Ho-to-Accra highway. Again, at the Gbogame roundabout, to your right is the road leading to Akrofu, Bame, Kpeve, Hohoe through to Asikuma Junction (a section of the Eastern Corridor Road). But when neither of these turns is negotiated, then a straightforward drive will lead you to Anyirawase, Tsito to Atimpoku after Juapong all the way to Accra.

The flood incident in pictures – Sunday, June 15, 2025.