CLIMATE REFUGEES: LIFE IN GHANA'S FAST VANISHING LANDS

Ada Totope in the Greater Accra region is a community with a population of about 3000 persons. It is located on the Ada Peninsula, uniquely sandwiched between the sea and the Songhor Lagoon. The main source of livelihood for residents here is fishing. But today, the sea which used to be their supply of life has become the source of death and destruction.

Ada Totope is one of the coastal communities in Ghana hardest hit by sea level rise as a result of climate change. The community has seen the sea break down and wash away more than 20 homes over the last 30 years. But an even greater number of houses have been buried in the sand. As the sea moves closer ashore, it sweeps lots of sand in shore that has drowned more than 30 homes here, rendering them inhabitable. There are lots of roofless brick structures with sand in them, reaching as high as the window levels across this community.

“The community was more than one and half to two kilometers away from the sea about 15 to 20 years ago; but now it is less than 20 meters because of sea erosion,” Chief of the area Theophilus Agbakla told Joy news in an interview.

Five years ago, the community recorded its ‘most bitter moment’ as a result of the sea’s repeated violent acts. Three people were drowned as they were trying to salvage their properties when the sea water swept through the houses of many in the middle of the night. “When you look at the rise in the sea level, it killed three people. Nii Adi Nortey, Ofotsu Obedi and Adjei. The volume of the water hit them and they died,” Mr. Agbaklah recounted sadly.

Several other communities along Ghana’s coast in the Volta, Central, and Western Regions have lost vast lands to the sea over the last half century, forcing residents to relocate from their homes.

Cause of sea level rise
“When there is (atmospheric) warming, the sea expands and spills over….then the Arctic and Antarctica which are highly frozen is thinning because of warming of the environment…the melting ice is filling the seas and that results in the overflow,” Head of Public Affairs at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Angelina Ama Tutuah Mensah explained when reached for an explanation on the cause of the sea level rise in several communities in Ghana.

“Because of increase in production of greenhouse gases, the world is warmer and the glaciers are melting and the areas around the equator including Ghana are where this excess water is getting to and flooding our coasts,” Kwesi Johnson of NGO Friends of the Nations, further explained.

In Ada Totope, the situation has resulted in an ‘accommodation crisis.’ Those who used to live in the submerged and destroyed homes have moved to put up with family and friends on the other side of town, crowding themselves into small rooms in compound houses without basic amenities of life.

Real life stories
Simone Dogbee is a carpenter, and has eight children. He used to live in a five bedroom house beside the sea here. After their home was repeatedly flooded with water and packed with sand to the window level, they had no option but to move out of here in 2005. Life has not been the same for them since. “Ten years ago, we had a family of about 20 people living in the house but it got flooded and we had to relocate… our lives have worsened. Our economic activities have been halted as well,” Dogbee explained.

This is not the only home that is gone. Joy news also interviewed 50 year old John Mawudzi. He has two wives and eight children. He starved himself and his family of any expensive living for most parts of the 30 year period he spent working actively as a fisherman to build his dream house. But the sea came for the house about five years ago, and his family has no comfortable place of abode now. “My house has been destroyed by the sea…That night, the sea was coming and the volume of water was so huge…people, were hurt, my wife was hurt, I had to leave to go live elsewhere,” he said.

About 10 years ago, government began the construction of a sea defence wall at Ada Totope to protect the community. But it has been abandoned much to the anger of residents. The rough sea has not only destroyed homes here. It has also destroyed fishing boats and other equipment, snuffing out the livelihoods of many. The community is now cut off from the rest of the country. Portions of the roads here have been washed away by the sea, and what is left is covered by sand pushed ashore. The bus station that existed here is no more. The chief explained getting sick persons out of the community to seek treatment in times of emergency is always difficult. “When people are sick especially pregnant women, you have to carry them in an arm chair to the school, six hundred meters away to get a vehicle…sometimes they die,” Mr. Agbaklah said.

Major monuments in Accra at risk
Away from Ada Totope, Accra - the country’s most important city and home to the country’s political elite is another town deemed highly vulnerable to the rise in sea level. Accra has a relatively open coast that allows strong waves accompanying the sea water to easily reach the shore, resulting in the destruction of homes and property. A study in 2006 found that Accra’s coast once existed between 12 and 18 meters into the current areas covered by the Atlantic Ocean. Meaning up to 18 meters of Accra’s lands has been lost to the sea over the years. Every meter of sea rise leads to 110 square km of land loss to the sea. Predictions are that the situation will get worse in the years ahead. A study by researchers at the University of Ghana’s Marine and Fisheries Sciences Department predicted that the Osu Castle will be swallowed by the sea in the next 50 years if it continues to rise at the current levels.

“We modeled the different scenarios of sea level change. And we realized that in the next 50 years, if nothing is done about the problem of sea level rise, the Osu Castle area will be lost. And then in the next 100 years, we are likely to lose the Independence Square. And in the next 150 years, we are likely to lose the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum if the sea level rise continues as we are experience now,” Prof. Kwasi Appeaning Addo who is head of the department explained. “The lands there will be lost. Communities there will also be affected. It will result in massive displacements. Which will result in problems with migration,” he added.

Scientists also predict that additionally, the Asomdwee Park, the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, the Densu Wetlands and up to 1km of land from the sea in the Greater Accra Region would be submerged by 2100. About 645 thousand people and 900 buildings will be affected. A lot more persons will be displaced, resulting in social upheavals that could reach uncontainable limits.

Western Region
The problem of sea level rise is even more pronounced in the Western Region; a result of something more than just climate change. That is, the construction of large scale infrastructure on the sea like the deep-water Takoradi Habour, oil rigs, naval base among others. Such infrastructures displace water from the sea onto land and disrupt the natural shoreline, worsening the problem of sea level rise.

Take Nkontompo, a community in the Sekondi Takoradi Metropolis for example. 2 meters stretch of coastal land is lost to the sea here each year. According to scientists at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology’s Department of Architecture, nine acres of land, forming a third of the total built up area in Nkontompo has been eroded since the 1960s leading to damage and subsequent loss of about 117 buildings to the sea. Also in this region, Dixcove, one of Ghana’s most traditionally significant communities is being eroded by the sea at a very fast pace.

“This very house too, gradually gradually, the sea scattered all the houses around here. If you look up there, there is a big house there called ‘Efiekesim.’ That too has been destroyed by the sea,” a resident told Luv FM’s Prince Appiah who visited the area.

Challenges in dealing with problem
Direct human activities including sandwining and other illegal acts along the sea have been identified as a major contributory factor to the problem. “If you take sand from the coastal area, you create a deficit. So, once you create a deficit, the system will try to re-arrange to try and correct that deficit and that will result in erosion,” Prof Appeaning Addo explained.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is however worried that state institutions like the courts have not been supportive in helping crack down on those who destroy the environment. “The EPA, we do a lot of enforcement. But the court systems are slow. And therefore the EPA will do its job alright but we need the support of the courts. We need the support of the police,” the EPA’s Head of Public Affairs Angelina Tutuah Mensah explained.

Any solutions in sight?
Experts are worried the destruction of homes, farmlands, roads, electricity and water infrastructure, industries and other properties along the coastal belt as a result of sea level rise has the potential to negate a lot of the development gains the country has made over the years and deepen poverty further.

As indicated, the root cause of the difficulties all these communities face is climate change and global warming. Global warming is essentially a rise in the temperature of the earth, attributed mainly to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere produced by the use of fossil fuels in cars, industries, etc. Government recognizes the damage climate change is doing to lives and property and has thus adopted a national climate change adaptation policy that details specific recommendations on how to deal with the problem. Recently, Ghana joined more than 170 countries across the world to sign an agreement in Paris on how to deal with climate change. But Director of the Institute of Environment and Sanitation Studies at the University of Ghana Prof Chris Gordon is not impressed with the state’s efforts at tackling the menace.

“On paper, Ghana is very committed to dealing with climate change. Unfortunately, a lot of this commitment is not rolled out in practice and implementation… There are many things government can do to serve as role model for the rest of the country to follow, on what is appropriate and inappropriate…There are things they could do to show they are serious about climate change which I do not think they are doing,” he said.

“We have large vehicles… 5.7 litre engines being used by ministers and so forth for driving around Accra. Absolute waste of everyone’s resources…. Accra was supposed to have a green belt. Where is that greenbelt now? Successive governments have changed the greenbelt of Accra into urban housing and this is actually driven by politicians who give out the land, most of which are government acquired lands as favours,” Prof. Gordon lamented.

He continued: “And I’m sure you know about the current issue around the Achimota School which is one of the few green remaining areas in Accra. There is a push to re-allocate a lot of that land as urban housing. Why should that be? Knowing that the green areas act as the lungs of the city…”

“What is happening is that we are taking short term actions without looking at the long term consequences…and as a result we are mortgaging the future of the young people who follow us.” Prof. Gordon concluded.

All is not lost yet. But mankind must wake up as soon as possible to this threat climate change is causing to habitats on earth, or man will live to regret the price of inaction.

You can watch the video version of this story on the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zlWf0rZILY

By Joseph Opoku Gakpo / Joy news