Flooding and health risk in selected urban poor communities in Accra, Ghana

Mumuni Abu, University of Ghana

The relations between climate-related hazards and the health of populations residing in urban poor communities are unclear. In this study, emphasis was placed on the theory of Affect to understand the relations between household’s exposure to flooding and health risk, especially diarrhoeal disease. Using data from the CCHEALTH project at RIPS, University of Ghana, the Ghana Meteorological Agency and the Centre for Health Information Management, the study employed mental model techniques and Granger causality test to examine whether diarrhoeal disease and other health-related problems are stressors of flooding in urban poor communities. The results suggest health-related problems are stressors of flooding in urban poor communities. Households’ perceived risk of the consequences of a hazard determines how they measure the severity of the stressors of the hazard. These findings contribute to the discourse on the need to include social and psychological dynamics of the population in addressing health problems in communities.