According to the World Resources Institute, approximately 20 million people are at risk of flooding globally, with the resulting damage close to US$80 billion.

The number could increase to 50 million people in 15 years, the institute said.

To ameliorate the effect this could have in Ghana, the Minister for Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye, charged the Ghana Metrological Authority (GMET), the Hydrological Services Department (HSD), and the Water Resources Commission, to create and implement innovative data analysis tools to forecast and identify the country's present and future water risks.

That would make it possible for decision-makers to obtain the necessary tools to combat hydrological disasters, he said.

The Minister made the call when he opened a technical workshop for personnel from HSD, GMET and Water Resources Commission for the establishment of a Global Hydrological Status and Outlook System (HydroSOS) in Accra on Wednesday.

The HydroSOS is a system that can monitor global freshwater hydrological status and subsequently predict and mitigate its associated conditions of floods and droughts.

Mr Asenso-Boakye said the establishment of the HydroSoS system should equip hydrologists, meteorologists and other relevant experts from various state institutions with state-of-the-art tools, skills and expertise to develop relevant indices which would be used as proxies to track and quantify droughts and flooding occurrences.

Mr Asenso-Boakye reiterated the government's unflinching support to state institutions such as the HSD, soon to be Ghana Hydrological Authority, GMET, and Water Resources Commission, among others in their effort to collect and disseminate critical hydro-climatic data and information to inform the country social-economic development.

He expressed confidence that the system would provide the much-needed platform for increased collaboration among key stakeholders to better manage hydrological disasters while building the country's resilience against climate change.