Almost a year after they were battered by deadly tidal waves, the people of Ketu and Ketu South District in the Volta Region are heavily bleeding and in a state of panic.
This is because the weather patterns are not favourable and the loud silence of the government over when to undertake the second phase of the Blekusu Sea Defence Project.
The last year tidal waves on that stretch of the area were devastating to the extent that the whole area is yet to recover from the ramifications of the sorrowful event.
The November 2021 wave was the third and the heaviest experienced in the area, after the initial two, which effects were minimal.
Schools, houses, roads and other landed property were heavily affected, with thousands of people becoming homeless.
Shockingly, the government’s commitment towards the Blekusu Sea Defence Project is virtually zero, as nothing is going on, after the government gave a firm promise to undertake the second phase of the project.
Government’s Affirm Assurance In The Past
After that unfortunate incident, the government, through the Ministry of Works and Housing, said that there was an engagement by the ministry to raise funds for the implementation of the second phase of the Blekusu Coastal Protection Project.
Covering a stretch of eight kilometres, the second phase involves the construction of 37 armour rock groynes, with land reclamation, to protect the coastal stretch.
At a press briefing, just a day after the calamity, the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Francis Asenso-Boakye, gave the assurance that everything would be done to protect lives and property along the coastal areas.
The minister said, when completed, the project would ensure the total protection of the people of the affected communities that continued to bear the brunt of this seasonal disasters.
He said 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 practices that expose them to the vagaries of the rising sea levels.
“There have been reported cases of sand winning, uprooting of mangrove along the coastal stretch, etc.
The investments by government cannot yield the needed protection if people continue to engage in such practices,” he said.
Almost One Year On
A visit by The Inquisitor to the area recently revealed that the second phase of the Blekusu Sea Defence Project has not started.
Apart from the fears that the project would not start anytime soon, residents of the affected communities are walloping in distress because their lives were yet to bounce back after that 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,’’ Mr. Kobla Amuzu, a resident farmer, told The Inquisitor.
According to the farmer, they were fully convinced that government was going to concentrate on the Blekusu project after that loud promise after those destructive waves, but nothing is going on.
‘’Now we are scared and praying that we do not experience another 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.