President John Dramani Mahama has assured residents of erosion-battered communities along Ghana’s eastern coastline that construction works under the World Bank-supported West Africa Coastal Areas (WACA) project will begin soon, following a visit to affected areas in the Volta Region on Wednesday.
The President said the project has already completed major preparatory stages and is now progressing toward construction. “The feasibility study is finished. They are at the design stage. After the design stage, they’ll do the procurement. That is the actual construction of the WACA project,” he told residents.
Ghana joined the second phase of the WACA Resilience Investment Project (WACA ResIP 2) in 2022, with the initiative to be implemented over a five-year period from 2023 to 2027. The financial support, comprising both a grant and a loan component, totals $155 million and is intended to pilot coastal resilience interventions in the Volta and Greater Accra regions.
Planned interventions under the project include the construction of sea defence structures, installation of groynes to reduce the force of incoming waves, and ecosystem-based measures such as mangrove restoration and coconut tree planting to stabilise the shoreline naturally.
The President’s first stop was Fuveme, a community situated close to a shoreline estuary that has been significantly consumed by the sea. He outlined a short-term plan to address the immediate pressure on the community while the broader project moves into its construction phase. He said the government would engage the Volta River Authority (VRA) to carry out dredging of the main estuary. “Normally when the estuary is silted, then it looks for ways to join the sea in other places. That is what is happening exactly here. But if we dredge it, it allows more water to flow out into the sea. So, we’ll take immediate measures to try and reduce the effect, but a long-term solution is the World Bank project which we’re about to start,” the President said.
From Fuveme, he proceeded to Jita Anyanui where he inspected an existing sea defence wall, before moving on to Agaveji in the Ketu South constituency. The community, which has faced severe tidal wave damage in recent years, has seen some relief following the award and commencement of phase two of the Blekusu sea defence project.
Coastal civil society organisations had, as recently as April 20, petitioned the President to urgently reactivate the WACA program, warning that continued delays would worsen environmental degradation and increase the vulnerability of coastal ecosystems. They cautioned that discontinuing the project would be costly as rising sea levels and increasing tidal wave activity continue to erode coastlines and displace communities.
President Mahama reiterated his administration’s commitment to delivering lasting protection for communities that have endured years of displacement and livelihood loss due to coastal erosion.
