Checking Sea Erosion At Ada

At long last, and in many years, the people of the Ada Traditional Area in the Dangme East District of the Greater Accra Region are going to appreciate the good side of life without any disturbance of their daily activities from the rough sea which has devastated coastline of Ada for over five-decades.

This lifeline follows the securing of a 68 million euro loan facility by the government to cover almost 30 kilometres of the 44 km-stretch of the Ada Sea Defence coastline project. The Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, announced last Saturday at a durbar of the chiefs and at Big Ada to celebrate the Asafotufiami festival, that “the construction of the Ada Sea Defence wall is to salvage the people in the area from the ravages of the sea”.

He said while the Ada Sea Defence Project was ongoing, enough funds would be secured to cover the remaining distance of the Ada Sea Defence coastline.

Government has contracted Dredging International, Experts in Marine and Waterway Construction Firm from Belgium, to construct the Sea Defence Wall .

The President in 2009 promised the people of Ada that his government would pursue the construction of a sea defence project for Ada. And last year during the celebration of the festival, Mr Alban Bagbin, then Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, hinted about the government's commitment to fulling the promise and disclosed that preparatory works had then begun with the completion of preliminary construction of site offices, general construction works and the preparation of quarries for the supply of armour rocks.

Coastal erosion is the wearing away of land or the removal of beach or dune sediments by wave action, tidal or wave currents and causes of this disturbing phenomena, could be both natural and man-made. The natural waves generated by storms and strong wind action cause coastal erosion, which may take the form of long-term losses of sediment and rocks, or merely the temporary redistribution of coastal sediments. The erosion in one location may result in the build-up of sand or sediments elsewhere.

Man-made activities such as sand mining also contribute to this gloomy picture. Although sand winning is banned along beaches in the country, it continues to be a source of sand supply for the real estate sector. The activities of sand winners desperate to make their living vent their spleen on the volumes of sand on the country’s beaches.

According to estimates, the ocean claims 1.5 to 2 metres of the 539- kilometre coastline annually; with the most risky areas, Ada Foah and the Eastern parts of Keta, recording 4 metres. This is very alarming and we hope that this project will put to rest some of the devastating effects of the sea erosion.

In the quest to provide the nation with a comprehensive database to help in tackling the issue, the Oceanography and Fisheries Department of the University of Ghana has mapped the following with red flags: Greater Accra Region: Kokrobite, Bortianor, Labadi, Teshie, Nungua, Tema, Prampram, Old Ningo and Ada.

In this vein the Daily Graphic calls on the people of Ada to give the project the chance to succeed by co-operating with the contractors to develop their area to make life bearable for them. We hope that this project will offer the people some respite and open up their area for business activities.