Residents of villages in the Ketu South Municipality plagued by tidal waves have blamed their current problems on the government’s neglect over the years.
Around 1,000 people have been displaced as a result of recent tidal wave attacks that destroyed approximately 87 homes.
The displaced claim that had successive regimes heeded their pleas and moved quickly to construct defensive walls to shield them from the roaring tide, the sea would not have collapsed their cement walls, dragged their building down, and snatched away all their possessions.
They reached a zenith, according to the Ghana News Agency, when officials from the Ministry of Works and Housing (MWH) headed by the Municipal Chief Executive visited the region to examine the situation after a protest by residents to draw attention to their plight.
Mr Owusu Ansah, Hydro Director at MWH, on behalf of Mr Asenso Boakye, assured the public that their issues will be addressed expeditiously to safeguard the shoreline and preserve the remaining structures.
He said that just as the government constructed the Atorkor and Dzita-Anyanui sea defense projects in the Anloga District and phase one of the Agavedzi-Blekusu sea defense project in the Ketu South Municipality, the Ministry will negotiate the start of phase two to protect the sea-affected areas.
Read Also: Veep launches Fuel Monitoring System to combat illegal activity in downstream petroleum field
Mr Ansah, on the other hand, pleaded with citizens to exercise patience and allow the government additional time to raise funds for the scheme, which he defined as capital intensive, noting that times were difficult for the State.
This message did not alleviate the homeless’ suffering, nor did it inspire optimism in those few households who retained their structures but existed in perpetual terror of what the sea would do in the next second.
They said that rather than being still, like they had done for all the years the sea had troubled them, they would rather be on the road in this month of April shouting for assistance, as there could be no Salakope or Amutinu to salvage from next month to the seventh.
“I constructed a house in Blekusu that had been long engulfed by the sea. I have another one at Amutinu, and the sea is about to swallow it up as well. Consider me at this point in my life; what will I do, where will we go, who can we run to, and how am I going to provide for my family? Yet no government is capable of empathizing with our plight and acting swiftly to save us,” Mr Felix Amematsror, an elderly fishing net user, lamented.
“I see governments’ ignorance as contributing to our present sad situation.
We no longer sleep at night for fear that the sea, which becomes dangerous at night, will attack us when we are sleeping. What we’re seeing now pales in comparison to what’s to come in May. Imagine what will happen to us before anyone arrives to our aid. We’re not going to wait and let the sea destroy us.
Salakope Chief Fisherman Torgbui Emmanuel Anomoo Tettey noted, “It’s best to be on the road and make noise.”
SOURCE: ATLFMONLINE
