The rainy season is a blessing.
It replenishes rivers, fills reservoirs and our dams, supports agriculture, and rainwater can be harvested for various purposes.
Yet, for many families, the announcement of a rainfall spells doom.
This is because of potential invasion into their homes when the rains pour heavily or for longer hours than expected.
The rainy season has etched its place in Ghana’s history as the onset of a season of preventable illness, injury, displacement, and death among children.
Children are always the most affected because they are unable to discern danger.
Their bodies are also less able to withstand disease.
They depend on adults for protection as a result.
Flooding presents immediate and long-term threats to children.
They can drown when swept away by floods, fall into hidden drains, construction pits, septic tanks, or quarries, play in the floodwater, or attempt what appears to be a harmless crossing.
Every flood should therefore be treated as a life-threatening hazard, not a playground.
Beyond the tragic loss of young lives through drowning, floodwaters can destroy homes, schools, and health facilities.
Many families end up in temporary shelters where overcrowding and poor sanitation can increase the risk of disease outbreaks.
The emotional trauma of losing one’s home or being separated from loved ones should not be dismissed or overlooked because we think children are unaffected.
Displaced children become more vulnerable to neglect, exploitation, abuse, and interruption of their education as their parents turn attention to other seemingly weightier issues, such as how to recover their losses.
As floodwaters recede, another danger emerges.
Stagnant water pools become ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes, resulting in increased malaria transmission.
Malaria remains one of the leading causes of illness and death among African children.
At the same time, overflowing drains and contaminated water sources spread cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery, and other diarrhoeal diseases.
Children become infected through unsafe drinking water, contaminated food, poor hygiene, and inadequate sanitation.
During heavy rains, outbreaks can spread rapidly through schools and communities if preventive measures are neglected.
The rainy season also places children with chronic health conditions at greater risk.
Cold weather, damp environments, and respiratory infections frequently trigger asthma attacks.
Children living with sickle cell disease may develop painful crises because of exposure to cold, dehydration, or infections.
These children require uninterrupted access to medicines, prompt medical care, and extra protection from harsh weather conditions.
Floodwaters displace snakes from their natural habitats, forcing them into homes, schools, shelters, and other places where children may be present.
Children playing in floodwaters or walking through tall grass may accidentally step on or disturb snakes hidden by muddy water or vegetation, resulting in snake bites.
Parents and caregivers must be the first line of protection by supervising children, preventing them from playing in floodwaters, ensuring safe drinking water and proper hygiene, eliminating mosquito breeding sites around their homes, encouraging the use of mosquito nets and paying special attention to children living with asthma, sickle cell disease, disabilities, and other chronic illnesses.
Families and communities should work together to keep their surroundings clean, clear drains, report blocked waterways, support displaced families, and create neighbourhood awareness of flood and disease prevention.
Schools should educate children on flood safety, hygiene, and malaria prevention, while maintaining clean sanitation facilities and safe learning environments.
Health professionals should intensify health education, ensure early diagnosis and treatment of malaria and diarrhoeal diseases, monitor vulnerable children closely, and strengthen disease surveillance during the rainy season.
Local authorities and disaster management agencies must improve drainage systems, enforce environmental sanitation laws, provide timely flood warnings, and establish safe evacuation centres that protect children’s health, safety, and dignity.
Finally, policymakers must recognise that protecting children from seasonal disasters is an investment, not an expense.
Investment in drainage infrastructure, clean water, sanitation, resilient healthcare systems, climate adaptation, and child-centred disaster preparedness will save lives and reduce healthcare costs for generations to come.
Every preventable childhood death from drowning, malaria, cholera, or delayed medical care, etc represents a failure of collective responsibility.
The writer is a Child Development expert/ Fellow of the Zero-To-Three Academy, USA.
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