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One year after the sea ravaged homes in Ketu South, residents call for help
One year after the sea ravaged homes in Ketu South, residents call for help

One year after the sea ravaged homes in Ketu South, residents call for help

Last year, over 15 communities in the Anloga District and Ketu South Municipality of the Volta Region were hit by tidal waves.

The affected communities were Fuveme, Dzita, Akplorwortor, Agbledomi, Atsiteki, Anyanui, Atokor in the Anloga District, and Amutinu, Salakorpe in the Ketu South Municipality respectively.

A year after the incident, the residents say they have not seen anything being done to protect them against a future reoccurrence of the disaster.

In November last year, many structures including newly constructed schools were affected by the tidal waves.

A local guesthouse and lodging place called 'Meet Me There African Home Lodge', a healthcare centre and several other houses were rendered uninhabitable.

The main road along the stretch was covered with sea water, making vehicular and human traffic difficult.

Farms were also not spared, as many of them, were submerged. At Anyanui for instance, tomato and cassava farms were also destroyed, a situation which affected agricultural production in the area.

A year after the incident which forced many of the residents to vacate the affected areas, nothing concrete has been done.

Some of the residents have called for the construction of a sea defence wall to protect them and prevent a situation where they will have to lose the land they have occupied for so many years.

'We need a sea defence wall. Lives and properties must be protected in our area.'

Those were the words of Mr Sylvester Kumawu last year. He is the assembly member for Amutinu-Salakope, one of the communities hit by the tidal waves in the Ketu South municipality in the Volta Region.

He said life had been very tough for the affected families, and that what was required was a long-term solution to the problem.

The tidal waves disrupted the economic activities of the people and affected the people’s health, education and other daily engagements.

For months, over 1,000 residents of Agavedzi, Adina, Amutinu and Salakope in about 135 homes were affected and rendered homeless by the ravaging sea, which kept swallowing homes and destroying property.

Amplified call

The amplified call for a sea defence wall in the affected area appears to have become urgent because the sea — which used to be 500 metres away from human settlements — is now about 100 metres closer to the people.

The tidal waves became intense from 2015, for which reason the government signed a contract with Amadi Company Limited for a sea defence project.

The first phase of the project, which commenced in 2016, tackled the coastal stretch from Havedzie/Horvi-Blekusu-Agavedzi, which at the time was at the mercy of the destructive force of the waves.

The second phase was to be from Agavedzi-Salakope-Amutinu-Adina to other coastal communities.

The repercussions of the annual tidal waves have always been disastrous, although no casualty is recorded.

The Keta-Aflao road in the area is currently on the verge of being swept away by the sea, threatening to leave the communities trapped between the sea and the Keta Lagoon.

The people’s fear

The people fear that if the sea takes away the Keta-Aflao road around the area where the communities are located, it could further take away the main Accra-Aflao ECOWAS road if the sea defence wall is not constructed within the next two months.

To the people of the area, the only solution to the problem was a sea defence wall to protect residents of the affected communities.

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