At least 24 people were killed across Ghana at the weekend after severe floods triggered by rains swept away houses, the chief of the west African country's disaster management agency said on Monday.
Hours of torrential rain on Sunday prompted rivers and streams to burst their banks, sending flood waters gushing through houses and roads, rescue workers said.
"The national figure has gone up to 24 … and we are doing everything possible to rescue those who are still trapped by the floods and provide relief items to them," said Kofi Portuphy, coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO).
Three regions, including the coastal capital Accra, are most affected by the floods, triggered by heavy torrential rains that pounded the country on Sunday and cut off electrity and water supplies.
"This is a disaster for the country as we have lost lives and property running into millions of cedis (dollars)," he said.
In Ashiaman, in the Greater Accra region, the torrential rains paralysed many parts of the sprawling municipality, forcing some victims to spend the night on rooftops after their homes were submerged in water.
Among those killed were four children aged between three and 12 years.
Two of the victims were found trapped in the Ashiaman tunnel underneath the expressway linking Accra and the industrial port city of Tema.
Portuphy said 12 of the dead were recorded in Ghana's Central region, 11 in Greater Accra and one in the inland Volta region.
Some survivors who managed to escape the raging waters were seen returning to their houses to try take advantage of a lull in the rains on Monday and dry their water-drenched belongings across Accra, the seaside capital of Ghana.
Others counted the cost of the disaster.
"Where will I start from now, when all my belongings have been washed away by the floods," said Richard Amable, a 70-year-old pensioner at Ashaley Botwe, a suburb of Accra.
Shops were partially covered with huge silt deposits.
"My business has been devastated by the flood. I took a loan from the bank to set up this place and look what has become of it. I'm in a deep mess," said a second-hand clothes dealer Ibrahim Moro.
Flooding in Ghana, especially around Accra, has become a perennial issue that forced authorities early this year to demolish houses built near waterways and erect more drainage trenches.
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