Floods wreak havoc in southern Ghana

Heavy rains in southern Ghana on Sunday wreaked havoc in the south of the country with several regions sending out distress messages to the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) and the military for help.

Several reports from the Eastern, Central and Volta regions says large swathes of land are under water with a number of communities cut from the rest of the country.

Several roads, including the Accra-Tema motorway, a major link to the east of Ghana from the capital, have been flooded, as the rain continues to fall.

"This is terrible. There is very little we can do now until the water recedes," Roads Minister Joe Gidisu, said from the motorway where a bridge has been covered with water and one stretch of the motorway closed to traffic.

Eyewitnesses speak of vehicles bobbing up and down the flood waters at the area and hundreds of passengers are stranded.

Eyewitnesses elsewhere say some people are trapped on top of their houses that are under water, while their properties have been lost.

Many rivers have burst their banks and have taken over communities.

Ghana experiences perennial flooding, but affected people say this is the worst they have seen in recent memory.

The Meteorological Services Agency is yet to give details of the volume of the rain and the police are yet to confirm reports of casualties.

A dam in the west of Accra where a water treatment plant serves the area has spilled water about three times in recent weeks, but officials say they will continue spilling the water whose level continues to rise.