Eroding homes: Ghana’s disappearing coastal communities – Dialogue Earth

Sat on a crumbling wall of concrete blocks, 71-year-old Agbasa Stanley gazes out at the Gulf of Guinea. Here in Dzakplagbe village, in Ghana’s south-eastern Volta region, Stanley’s face is a mixture of wonder and sadness. “I was born and raised here,” he says. “Back then, the sea was miles away from where we are standing. Many houses, and whole communities, have been swallowed by the water.”

Fishing communities like Dzakplagbe and Fuveme once thrived here. But this part of Volta is located on a narrow strip of land that separates the Keta Lagoon from the Atlantic Ocean, and it has been gradually sinking. Formerly fertile land is now open water. Scattered remnants of stone walls serve as faint reminders of the homes and lives that previously flourished here.

Formerly a fisher, Stanley is among the last to remain in Dzakplagbe. “Some moved to other areas nearby, and others went far away,” he says. “But we stayed because we had nowhere else to go. We cannot afford to build new homes. This is our home, our roots, and now, it’s all under the sea.” His voice breaks as tears fill his eyes.

Stanley’s experience is emblematic of the harsh reality facing over seven million people, about a quarter of the population, who call Ghana’s coastal regions home. Communities located along the country’s south-eastern coast – including Dzita, Keta, Horve, Blekusu and Adina – have lost over 10,000 structures, including schools and churches, as well as other assets like livestock, much of it quickly to sudden waves.

The land is disappearing at an alarming rate. Ghana’s coastal erosion causes the sea to progress inland at an average rate of two metres per year. About 37% of Fuveme’s coastal land was lost to flooding and erosion between 2005 and 2017, according to an associate professor of coastal processes at the University of Ghana writing for Unesco in 2021.

Ghana’s eastern coastline, where Dzakplagbe, Fuveme and Keta are located, is worst affected by coastal erosion. Amid sea levels rising due to climate change, these communities also face stronger tidal waves. This activity erodes land, floods homes and can eventually cause communities to sink.

“The sandy nature of our shoreline [means it] lacks a rocky seafloor to act as a barrier, allowing waves to erode the coast more easily,” explains Sedem Abla Abui Adjorlolo, an environmental management expert at the Institute of Climate, Coastal and Environmental Protection, a local think-tank.

A 2013 research paper, a collaboration between academics in China and Ghana, concluded that climate change has played a significant role in the rapid sinking of Ghana’s coastal regions. The situation has been worsened by decades of unregulated human activities, ranging from sand mining and mineral extraction to coastal deforestation and canal dredging. “In the past, the coastline in Ghana was surrounded by green forests and thick trees,” the paper stated. “However, over the years, activities like deforestation as a result of population growth and urbanisation have resulted in those areas being cleared for infrastructural development. These activities have increased the susceptibility of the sea to global climate change and natural occurrences like winds, which can cause severe waves and tides to wash away the coast…”