Stakeholders call for measures to minimise climate change effects
Participants at Deltas, Vulnerability and Climate Change: Migration and Adaptation (DECCMA) project workshop has called for adaptation measures to minimise the impact of climate change.
The participants noted that Ghana cannot continue to talk about mitigating and reactive measures, hence the need to take long term adaptive processes to mitigate the impact of climate change.
The workshop held at Sogakope involved district chief executives (DCEs), planning officers and other stakeholders from Ada West, Ada East, South Tongu, Central Tongu, Keta, Ketu South and Akatsi Districts.
The seven districts are within the five metres contour of the ocean and highly prone to climate change effects.
Participants suggested the need for policies to refrain from sand winning and dumping of refuse at river and lagoon banks.
Mr Sylvester Edah Tornyeavah, Keta DCE, who spoke on the sea defense project appealed to government to build defensive a wall along the stretch of the lagoon as a long-term remedy.
Mr Tornyeavah, said climate change has affected his community greatly during the annual rising of the tidal wave.
He said during the period entire community is submerged under flood.
Mr Samuel Mawuko Eworyi, South Tongu DCE, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) blamed the deltaic adversity in his district on the haphazard development of the area and the opening of the Bagre dam in Burkina Faso, which people thought affects only the northern part of the country.
He therefore called for sustainable measures to address the problem noting that reactive measure taken during disasters is expensive.
Mrs Mary Theodora Agbenyenu, Central Tongu DCE, told the GNA that the river in her community which has been a livelihood for inhabitants for a long time has been overtaken by river weeds, which makes it difficult for water to be fetched.
She said the river does not flow swiftly as before thus taking away the livelihood of the people.
Mrs Agbenyenu said the district is pleading with the Environment Protection Agency to clear the weeds.
This year’s DECCMA workshop was targeted at understanding the governance mechanisms that promote or hinder migration of men and women in deltas.
It aimed at evaluating the effectiveness options in deltas, assessing migration as an adaptation in deltaic environments under the changing climate and delivering policy support to create conditions for gender-sensitive adaptation.
Dr Kwasi Appeaning Addo, Deputy Principal Investigator, DECCMA said, the project has identified erosion, flooding and salt water intrusion as elements that are driving migration in delta areas.
Dr Addo said by the time the project ends in 2019, DECCMA should be able to raise a high level of awareness, device different methods of adaptation, and establish if migration could be an adaptation option that people in the deltaic region could access.
He added that influencing policy decision with regards to the governance, and management within the delta region could have been achieved.
“After five years when the funding is over, we hope to continue by attracting further funding into other areas that are relevant to the outcome of the research work,” he said.
The DECCMA project was launched on May 6, 2014 under the chairmanship of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana Professor Ernest Aryeetey and is jointly funded by International Development Research Centre and the Department for International Development.
The project is a consortium of five institutions from Africa, Asia and Europe including the University of Southampton, United Kingdom, Jadavpur University, India, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh and the Regional Institute of Population Studies, University of Ghana, Ghana.
Source: GNA