Municipal Chief Executive for Ketu South, Maxwell Lugudor, has appealed to persons in some communities in the Volta Region to desist from engaging in sand mining to avert destruction of properties caused by recent tidal wave in some communities.
According to him, flooding in homes caused by waves can be attributed to craters dug out along beaches by block manufacturers. Mr Lugudor explained that data from NADMO indicated that some “1,027 people [were] affected severely” as a result of tidal waves crushing into their homes.
Mr Lugudor revealed that via consultation with the regional minister, he has been directed with regards to what to do to help persons affected by the tidal waves.
“When I came here, I observed a lot [and] I want to let our indigenes know there’s some [sand mining] going on at the beach side; it’s not helping them… You could see there are some big holes so when the waves come it becomes stagnant at those places. So, the next ones that comes, it floods over. I will appeal to them; I’m not going to joke with these things… We will stop everybody that will be doing that [sand mining]. It’s not helping us. People are now suffering because of those things”.
Commenting on how best the situation can be resolved, Mr Lugudor revealed that despite the fact that government is doing “everything possible to help”, the “best solution” is the sea defence, albeit it is not an easy project. The Ketu South MCE noted that for the project to be successfully undertaken, the sea defence ought to continue to the “Aflao border” and it cannot be done without “consulting” their Togo counterpart.
Support communities affected by tidal waves
Meanwhile, member of the legal team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Abraham Amaliba, has called on government to support communities affected by the tidal waves in Keta and its environs.
According to Mr Amaliba, affected residents in the Volta Region are taxpayers like any citizens in other parts of the country. He recounted that the last time such an incident occurred, it occasioned the MP for the constituency, Dzifa Abla Gomashie, to “kneel down and beg” for some support to be granted affected persons in the area.
Following this, Mr Amaliba advised government to take necessary steps by directing state institutions such as the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) to send relief items to the affected communities in the Volta Region.
Mr Amaliba explained that the tidal waves are as result of climate change and necessitated by adverse human behaviour in not preserving the environment. He stressed that there is the need for government to find ways of preserving the environment.
“The climate change will give you heavy rainfall or more sunshine, these are the effects. And most of them are as a result of our own conduct as human beings. I must say that I am constrained to ask the question whether the Glasgow colloquium was not a talking shop. And so, when you narrow it to what happened two days ago in Keta and you could see homes flooded, people had their properties damaged, you begin to ask questions whether leaders are even concerned about the plight of their own people”.
Mr Abraham Amaliba
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