Regional News of Wednesday, 21 February 2007

Source: GNA

Salvage Ada Okor Coastal Line, we are submerging - MP

Ada-Foah, Feb. 21, GNA - The MP for Ada, Mr. Alex Narh Tettey Enyo has added his voice to the call on the government to look for funds to construct a sea defence wall along the coastal line of Ada which has come under threat by a devastating sea erosion.

According to Mr.Tettey-Enyo, the current government keeps on investing the country's scarce resources to conduct feasibility studies on the devastating sea erosion at Ada. He added that, over the past 15 years, numerous feasibility studies have been conducted along the shore lines which are very useful if the current government is ever ready to construct a sea defence wall along the coast of Ada.

Mr. Tettey Enyo said, for three conservative times, construction of a sea defence wall along the coastline at Ada has been put into the national budget statement and is yet to be realized, adding that, the government should look for funds to salvage the shorelines of Ada. He said over 5,000 metres of land have been sub-merged and that if the remaining land, which is a little bit above sea level is washed away, in a matter of days, the whole Ada land would be submerged. Mr. Tettey Enyo made these remarks when he conducted a group of media practitioners along the coastal line of Ada Okor. He told GNA that a recent feasibility study conducted by a Dutch researcher, Mr. Jean Helman and sponsored by the Dutch government, pointed out that tourism, land for commercial and industrial purposes, are submerging. The Songor Lagoon, impregnated with crystal salt and useful chemicals, is the lifeblood of Ada Okor people and is now being destroyed by sea erosion.

Meanwhile forts, prisons and other monuments constructed by the colonial government which served as tourist attractions have already been engulfed by the sea.

According to some coastal dwellers who spoke to GNA, fishing at particular places is risky because debris of collapsed building destroyed their canoes and a threat to their lives. Some said they could no longer fish in the lagoon because the seawater, which continues to enter the rivers and lagoon, did not make it habitable for fishes, which live in lagoon.

The costal dwellers along the coast of Ada blame the media for their poor reportage on the sea erosion at Ada. They claimed that about 50 communities along the coast should be published so that, the government could see the seriousness of the problems.

They mentioned some of the towns affected by sea erosions as Kerwunor, Azizanya, Ayigbo, Lolonya Korpey, Ada Foah Kpodzi, Ada Foah, Otrokper, Totimeh Korpey Foah Ngua, Ocansey Korpey,.Anyakpor, Adedetsekorpey, Patuetse-Korpey, Songutsopah, Elavanyo, Puteh, Totompey, Kablevu, Lolonya, Goi, Anyamam Akplabanya and Wokumagbe Lekpongunor.