Francis Asenso-Boakye
THE PEOPLE of Ketu in the Ketu South District of the Volta Region have appealed to government to honour its promise of starting the second phase of the Coastal Protection Project, to protect them from the onslaught of tidal waves.
They were battered by deadly tidal waves last year and are yet to recover from the ramifications of the incident.
The November 2021 wave was the third and the heaviest experienced in the area, after the two initial ones which were minimal.
Schools, houses, roads and other landed property were heavily affected, with thousands of people becoming homeless.
After that mishap, the government, through the Ministry of Works and Housing, told the residents that there was an engagement by the ministry to raise funds for the implementation of the second phase of the Blekusu Coastal Protection Project, which covered a stretch of eight kilometres, and involved the construction of 37 armour rock groynes and land reclamation.
At a press briefing, just a day after the calamity, the Minister of Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye, gave the assurance that everything would be done to protect lives and property along the coastal areas.
He added that when completed, the project would ensure the total protection of the people of the affected communities which continued to bear the brunt of such seasonal disasters.
He also explained that the phase two of the project would protect the beaches and their environs against encroachment by the sea, arrest the current environmental deterioration, mitigate the social and economic consequences of beach erosion, and strengthen the economic and production base of the area through enhanced fishing activities.
“While government makes all the necessary efforts to avert these unfortunate perennial occurrences, I wish to appeal to our coastal residents to avoid any practice that expose them to the vagaries of the rising sea levels. There have been reported cases of sand winning, uprooting of mangroves along the coastal stretch, etc. The investments by government cannot yield the needed protection if people continue to engage in such practices,” he said.
Apart from the fears that the project would not start anytime soon, residents of the affected communities are walloping in distress because their lives are yet to bounce back after the harrowing experience last year.
“We are living in fear as we do not know what will happen to us should we experience another tidal waves, because what we went through last year has not been dealt with,” Kobla Amuzu, a resident farmer, said.
According to the farmer, they were fully convinced that the government was going to concentrate on the Blekusu project.
“Now we are scared and praying that we do not experience other waves because our situation would be compounded seriously,” he said.
Tidal waves are perennial occurrences at the Ketu and Anloga areas, but that of last November had ravaging effects on the people, as lots of property, including agriculture fields, were lost.