![\"man](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/20241020_Dzakplagbe_ruins_Ghana_Ibrahim-Khalilulahi-Usman_.jpg\")
<\/div>The land is disappearing at an alarming rate. Ghana\u2019s coastal erosion<\/a> causes the sea to progress inland at an average rate of two metres<\/a> per year. About 37%<\/a> of Fuveme\u2019s coastal land was lost to flooding and erosion between 2005 and 2017, according to an associate professor of coastal processes at the University of Ghana writing for Unesco in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ghana\u2019s eastern coastline<\/a>, where Dzakplagbe, Fuveme and Keta are located, is worst affected by coastal erosion. Amid sea levels rising<\/a> due to climate change, these communities also face stronger tidal waves. This activity erodes land, floods homes and can eventually cause communities to sink. A 2013 research<\/a> paper, a collaboration between academics in China and Ghana, concluded that climate change has played a significant role in the rapid sinking of Ghana\u2019s coastal regions. The situation has been worsened by decades of unregulated human activities, ranging from sand mining and mineral extraction to coastal deforestation and canal dredging. \u201cIn the past, the coastline in Ghana was surrounded by green forests and thick trees,\u201d the paper stated. \u201cHowever, over the years, activities like deforestation as a result of population growth and urbanisation have resulted in those areas being cleared for infrastructural development. These activities have increased the susceptibility of the sea to global climate change and natural occurrences like winds, which can cause severe waves and tides to wash away the coast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The rising waters are a relentless foe. Fuveme was once a picturesque village perched upon the northern edge of the Gulf of Guinea. The sea breeze refreshed its residents and fishing was a way of life. By May 2022, however, it had been engulfed by the sea. Today, the area is marked by buried blocks, ruined properties, and a few people such as Stanley, living in precarious houses and clinging to what remains. Many of those who lost their homes now live kilometres away in makeshift shelters made from coconut fronds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen you\u2019ve lost everything, what\u2019s left to fear?\u201d says Sargblo, who still lives in Dzakplagbe. \u201cWe stay because this is our ancestral land, the place we called home before the sea took it away. Now, we live in ruins and rely on subsistence fishing to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A walk through Volta\u2019s Keta municipality reveals widespread destruction along the coast. In 2021, heavy tidal waves destroyed more than 500 houses and displaced about 4,000<\/a> residents. Many have yet to recover financially or psychologically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The effects of coastal erosion in Ghana have been apparent<\/a> from as early as 1974. The situation is dire: while Ghana loses an average of two to three metres of coastline each year, areas like Dzakplagbe, Keta, and Fuveme are eroding at rates of over five metres<\/a> per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides its vanishing coastal lands, Ghana\u2019s cultural heritage is also slipping away with the tide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keta\u2019s Fort Prinzenstein<\/a>, for example, was once a bustling tourism site. Built in 1784 by the Danes, the Unesco<\/a> World Heritage Site held enslaved Africans during the transatlantic slave trade. Today, 90% of the fort is gone, and what remains is in ruins. \u201cIn 1907, the erosion started,\u201d says James Ocloo Akorli, a historian and caretaker of the fort\u2019s remains. \u201cFirst, it was the coconut trees that were destroyed. Then, over time, the houses went. Eventually, the sea destroyed the fort. By 1980, when it was still being used as a prison, the damage was already severe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Ada Foah, Greater Accra, Fort Kongestein<\/a> tells a similar story. Built in 1783, it once played an important role in the European slave trade as a hub for the transportation of people and goods. The fort has since been entirely claimed by the sea, erasing a silent witness to the injustice of slavery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Ghanaian government\u2019s primary response to this coastal erosion crisis has been to construct sea defences in select areas. Clearly, however, it is too late for some communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is critical to act swiftly to protect the small amount of viable land we have left,\u201d says Adjorlolo. \u201cBuilding sea defences would help conserve some flora and fauna for future generations.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ghana is one of 17 West African countries participating in the West Africa Coastal Areas Management Program (WACA<\/a>). This initiative, financed<\/a> by the Nordic Development Fund and managed by World Bank Group, is a regional, multi-country effort designed to strengthen the resilience of coastal communities. If implemented effectively in Ghana, this programme will support existing initiatives enhancing coastal resilience. Joel Degue, a climate expert who represents the Centre for Natural Resources and Environmental Management (CNREM<\/a>) in Tema, near Accra, explains: \u201cThe effect of the sea walls is an acute erosion at the down-drift [the route taken by displaced wave energy] side of where the walls have been placed. So, what happens is that, a few hundred metres away from the last sea wall, erosion activities start occurring at a faster rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen the project was completed, the communities down-drift from Horve [Agavedzi and Blekusu, down to Aflao) started experiencing very acute erosional activities that they had never experienced before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n WACA estimates USD 1.14 billion<\/a> would be required to comprehensively protect the Ghanaian communities most vulnerable to this erosion using sea walls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experts consulted by Dialogue Earth say relying solely on sea walls is neither sustainable nor environmentally sound; a long-term solution could be better-structured coastal management strategies that work with nature, rather than against it. Bright Mawunyo Adzagba, the founder of Keta Ramsar Center, a local wetlands conservation NGO, says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe entire coastline needs dredging to reclaim land and weaken the waves\u2019 impact. When the sea is deep enough, wave energy dissipates, which could halt further erosion. Dredging would also boost fish populations, helping fishermen regain their livelihoods. Instead of depending on massive rocks, we should plant trees as windbreakers and embrace nature\u2019s power. We can\u2019t fight nature; we can only work with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As of 2018, 44.6%<\/a> of humanity lived within 150 kilometres of a shoreline. Research<\/a> into sea-level rise finds hundreds of millions of them could be at risk of losing their homes and livelihoods by 2100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many communities have been destroyed by the sea. But residents of communities assisted by organisations such as the Keta Ramsar Center demonstrate the potential for mitigation; for example, by restoring degraded mangrove wetlands in Anyanui and Atiteti, part of Volta\u2019s Anloga district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For now, coastal residents of Ghana who do not benefit from any coastal protection initiatives will continue to endure the looming threat of the sea consuming their homes and livelihoods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With the accelerating rate of erosion, and slow response in implementing solutions, one can only wonder if they will have a place to call home in the years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Villages like Fuveme and Dzakplagbe in the south-east are being lost to rising seas, which threaten over seven million Ghanaians<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50000692,"featured_media":60068257,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50039901],"tags":[555,50040749,50040326],"hashtags":[],"country":[50040738],"class_list":["post-60068254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ocean","tag-indigenous-peoples","tag-livelihoods","tag-soil","country-ghana"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy are the communities sinking?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe sandy nature of our shoreline [means it] lacks a rocky seafloor to act as a barrier, allowing waves to erode the coast more easily,\u201d explains Sedem Abla Abui Adjorlolo, an environmental management expert at the Institute of Climate, Coastal and Environmental Protection, a local think-tank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/20241020_Keta_ruins_Ghana_Ibrahim-Khalilulahi-Usman_.jpg\")
<\/div>Nowhere safe<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Dialogue Earth visited the area in October 2024 and found no remaining trace of the once-thriving community of roughly 1,000 people<\/a>. When Fuveme started to sink, many of its residents relocated to nearby Dzakplagbe. But Dzakplagbe was also going. Former residents recount how the sea kept advancing, with each wave bringing more destruction. They say around 500 homes have been destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/2013-2024_Fuveme_Ghana_google-earth_CNES-Airbus-V4.gif\")
<\/div>![\"ruined](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/20060617_Fort-Prinzenstein_Flickr_170412307_86f539621f_o.jpg\")
<\/div>Sea wall or nature-based solutions?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
One notable intervention to Ghana\u2019s costal erosion was the Keta Sea Defense Project<\/a>, built between 1999 and 2000 at a cost of USD 100 million. This sea wall aimed to prevent severe erosion and flooding between Keta and Horve in Volta. A WACA analysis<\/a> says the Keta Sea Defense has offered some relief, but that it has also increased coastal erosion to the east, at the Ghana-Togo border, by over 50%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"boulders](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/20241020_Keta-Sea-Defense-Prooject_Ghana_Ibrahim-Khalilulahi-Usman_.jpg\")
<\/div>We can\u2019t fight nature; we can only work with it<\/blockquote>Bright Mawunyo Adzagba, founder of the Keta Ramsar Center<\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n