The Anlo Youth Council (AYC) has called on the government to take a clear position on coastal sea erosions in the wake of the devastating tidal waves on coastal towns in the Volta Region.
In a statement signed by its Vice President of Communications, Seth Doe, the Council said government policy in the area is needed.
“We would like to use this opportunity to call on the government to make public its policy on coastal erosion especially the Anlo Coast which is the most vulnerable and estimated by experts to be receding at the rate of 2.2 meters per annum as against 0.6 metres by the rest of the country’s coastline,” the statement said.
From the early hours of Tuesday, November 2, 2021, the entire coastline of Anlo Stretching from Aflao to Fuveme was ravaged by tidal waves, according to the AYC.
Having assessed the situation on first-hand, the Council says it estimates that over one thousand five hundred (1500) households and sources of livelihood have been affected with not less than ten thousand people displaced.
“Coincidentally, this is coming at the backdrop of the ongoing Glasgow Climate Change Conference where we have been made aware that the international community has made funds available to help mitigate the impact of global warming on communities in the developing world,“ the group stated.
It lamented that the destruction of property and the displacement of several people in peacetime is a disruption to livelihood generation activities. “The impact of this large-scale displacement coupled with the prolonged closure of the country’s borders as part of measures to fight the COVID 19 pandemic has already created unsustainable, intolerable and inhumane living conditions. Government and its mandated competent agencies must as a matter of urgency respond to the disaster with a coordinated strategy to prevent losing the rest of the land strip to the sea,” said the AYC.