The West African Coastal Management Programme (WACA) has been rolled put in Ghana with a community stakeholder engagement held in the Anloga District of the Volta Region to raise awareness on the project.
The WACA project is World Bank sponsored aimed at coastal resilience in ways that would benefit the socio-economic interest of communities and populations under the threat of all forms of coastal disasters like tidal surge, floodings, storm surge and waterspouts.
Mr Noble Wadza, the Project Coordinator for Coastal Civil Society Forum, urged participants to support the project, being the only possible solution to the current coastal erosion hitting the Volta Region coast.
“This is just a project preparatory stage where we are supposed to engage the people in the affected areas, educate them towards awareness creation for the preliminary activities to commence.”
“This project preparatory stage mandates the civil society organisations to work with community to understand the project and demand accountability from the project, because we are aiming at development democracy.”
Mr Wadza urged the people to support the implementation towards a successful outcome.
Mr Kinney Ken, the Executive Director, Development Institute, assured the people that restoration of socio-economic activity of the area was one major aim of the project implementers.
He mentioned that the Keta Lagoon basin area would be rejuvenated to provide ecotourism for the natives.
“The project will include land reclamation from the sea as was done in Benin and Togo, how to restructure the area to withstand flood disaster by possibly dredging of the Keta Lagoon and mangrove restorations, which will not only benefit the environment but also provide economic benefits.”
The WACA Resilience Investment Project is being implemented in six countries in West and Central Africa.
In Togo, about 1,600 meters of land between Gbodjome and Agbedrafor had been reclaimed protecting about 940 households from coastal disasters.
Two coastal regions of Greater Accra and Volta are supposed to benefit with all three coastal districts in Volta Region (Anloga District, Keta Municipal, and Ketu South Municipal) as major beneficiaries.
Areas along the east coast of Ghana, particularly the Volta coast, have been experiencing severe coastal disasters in recent years rendering many homeless and destroying some businesses.
After the meeting, a four-member team was formed to serve as community intermediaries for further engagements.
Mr Joseph Kpattah, Presiding Member, Anloga District Assembly, Togbi Hatsu II of Dzita, Togbi Dukli Attipoe, Mr Joel Degue, Development expert, as well as administrative staff and assembly members were present at the meeting.
Keta Municipal and Ketu South are expected to have their engagements in subsequent days.
GNA