Coastal Erosion in Ghana

Our SATREPS project

Hello, it's Risako again :) I would like to share some stories and pictures from our survey.

0ur project in Ghana aims to give suggestions for adaptation measures against coastal erosion in Ghana. Coastal erosion is a serious problem there where the main source of living, fishery is affected from it and people’s houses and properties are washed away.

There needs urgent adaptations that can protect communities from harsh coastal flooding for a long time. 

What can we do to help Ghana government do so? 

That was the biggest question we had for this research trip to Ghana.

We, Kawasaki group, conducted a short survey in the affected areas to get the idea of what problems they suffer from coastal erosion. 

Damage from coastal erosion

The pictures tell you how much devastating the damage is.

What you can see from the picture is not even all that they have had. there had been much longer beach, over 10 m to the ocean, and more houses, which had been all washed away. 

The children in the picture aren’t in schools because the family have used money for recovering and can’t afford tuition fees. There were also people who had trauma from coastal flooding/erosion.

Garbage was also an issue in some areas. People litters to the beach, and when coastal erosion happens, those wastes come to houses with a wave. It also affects fishery.

Why did I not know this?

It was not until I went on this survey that I learned of the devastation in Ghana’s coastal areas. 

Why isn’t it reported by big medias in Japan or in the world 

From what I have seen, one reason could be that the damage from each coastal erosion is relatively small, but it happens approximately three times a year and the damage accumulates to the point where people are displaced and traumatized. 

This accumulation of damage from coastal erosion corresponds to the problem of climate change in a way that both problems gradually aggravate and not everyone can perceive the real damage from them.

I hope this blog and my future article can help let more people know about this problem and improve the livelihood of people there.