Glefe community faces wrath of global warming
It is 2:52pm, and as usual children are playing, women are engaging in their usual petty gossips, some men are seen busily winning sand. Trotros wait patiently for passengers to get on board as residents are seen going about their normal activities somewhere in Glefe.
Some residents have built walls to protect their lands from the harsh conditions of the rising sea level. This is how Glefe, a suburb of Dansoman looks like at a glance. For those who do not have the money to build these protective walls, they must continue the regular ritual of staying awake all night in the cold whenever it rains, waiting for the heavy rains to stop for the tides to recede.
But sometimes they are unlucky as the rains flood their rooms destroying what little food they have stored and their electrical and electronics equipment.
Margaret Hagan is a mother of two and in her late 60s. She trades in cassava and has lived in the Glefe community for the past seven years. Her house sits in overflow of sea water.
According to her, the land was bought by her husband but her husband died a few years ago leaving her with children to take care of. Now she is nursing hopes of moving out of Glefe. The area is now used as a place for defecating. Most people defecate on the beach increasing the risk of outbreak of communicable diseases. The area has no proper drainage system, it is inundated in stagnant water that sometimes collapses buildings. But this hope may be a mirage if she does not get assistance from elsewhere.
Margaret’s present situation highlights the effects of global warming and the impact of climate change.
Global warming, according to Dr. Delalie Dovie, an Ecologist and Environmental Change Scientist involves the warming of the earth’s surface through the rise in temperatures. This development, he says is in no doubt changing the conditions required for normal life supporting systems such as increased rainfall, increased continental dryness, and sea level rise, increased average surface temperatures, changes in vegetation among others here on earth.
The rise in temperatures has caused the sea level to rise and in its wake washing away buildings close to the coast.
Glefe a low lying coastal community is faced with the impact of rising sea levels.
“The sea disturbs us a lot so we wish we can leave”, Mary Duah, a 25 year old woman, mother of one laments. She said, “I wish I could leave but I have nowhere to go.”
She came to settle in Glefe because this is where she and her husband could afford to build. “My husband is at the Pastoral school. I used to trade but I no longer do that. It is God who feeds us by touching the heart of people to give unto us,” Mary says.
“We came to settle here in Glefe due to financial problems and the rent here is low, we pay 15 Ghana cedis a month as rent”, she revealed. Mary hopes government will come and build a sea defence wall to check the erosion.
Efia Akyia is a 26 year old housewife with three children living at about 10 metres away from the sea with her husband, Kwame Asare – a foam seller. There were about four buildings here before ours hen we came here about six years ago but now all of them have been washed away by the sea and as you can see part of ours too, Efia narrates.
“We are disturbed by the sea but money is the issue”, she says. “We pay 10 Ghana cedis as monthly rent but the landlord has asked that we stop paying and put the money together to get a new place,” she added.
So far, there is no sign of immediate action to build a sea defence wall for Glefe.
And things stands now, the hapless residents, can only continue hang on hope.
By Pascal Kelvin Kudiabor