By Joel Degue, Environmental Activist and Climate Change Advocate, Keta.
“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.” – Haile Selassie I.
There are moments in a nation’s history when decisions reveal not only priorities but also values, principles and tenets. The debate surrounding the WACA ResIP 2 Project is becoming one of those defining moments today in Ghana. It is also exposing a disturbing reality: some people appear to be resurrecting a colonial mindset that should have been buried long ago.
This is the thing! In 1929, during British colonial rule, A.T. Coode (an Engineer with a London-based engineering company by Coode, Wilson, Mitchell and Vaughan-Lee) reportedly argued that it was not economically justifiable to spend £1 million to protect Keta from the advancing sea because the total value of all the properties in the town could not even amount to £1 million.
In other words, Keta was considered too poor. That cold and unrealistic economic calculation placed a monetary value on an entire people and community, their homes, their cultural heritage, and their future survival. It reduced one of the most economically thriving coastal communities to a commodity, a balance sheet.
The consequences have been devastating thereafter. Decades of relentless coastal erosion have swallowed homes, schools, businesses, roads, places of worship, and priceless cultural heritage. Families have been displaced, separated, and broken. Livelihoods have been destroyed and lost forever.
Generations then and now have paid the price, and future generations may suffer the same for a decision rooted in economic convenience rather than human identity and dignity. What a faux pas! The coast east of the Volta estuary deserves the needed investment.
Nearly a century after Keta was left to its unfortunate fate, one would expect Ghana to have completely rejected such a line of thinking. But, alas! Yet there are troubling indications that the same logic is quietly resurfacing in discussions surrounding the WACA ResIP 2 Project.
Once again, there are voices that appear to view investment in coastal protection through the narrow and myopic lens of financial returns, economics and contribution to national GDP, and therefore questioning whether communities like Kporkporgbor, Gbakpegbor, Fuveme, Dzaflagbe, Agorkedzi, Atiteti, Agbledomi, Dzita,
Akplorwotorkor in the Anloga District, and Tettekope, Dzelukope, Lokpodzi, Abutuakope, Kedzikope, etc., are worth the investment for coastal protection. What a pity! Why? That argument is fundamentally flawed.
The first responsibility of any government is not simply to maximise financial returns or obtain economic gains only. It is, first and foremost, to protect its people – the most important national asset – and, secondly, to protect its territorial integrity. A nation does not abandon its communities because they are expensive to protect as well as its lands when attacked by an aggressor – the sea.
It does not calculate the value of human lives and loss of land against construction costs. It does not measure national heritage and coastal assets by the market price of buildings. No! It must act and act fast to save and safeguard its people, assets and territorial integrity.
If that becomes our standard, then every vulnerable community in Ghana should be worried now and in the future. Generations after us will not forgive the current leaders if they fail to protect the coast east of the Volta Estuary.
The Urgent Need for WACA ResIP 2. The WACA ResIP 2 Project is not merely about sea defence infrastructure. It is about protecting lives. It is about preserving homes, schools, hospitals, businesses, fisheries, tourism potential, and cultural identity. It is about preventing future humanitarian crises that would cost far more both financially and socially than proactive investment today.
Ghana must learn from its peers like Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Mauritania, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Togo that benefited from WACA ResIP 1, and currently The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau, which are in the same phase 2 with Ghana but have already started the physical infrastructure.
Every cedi spent on coastal resilience is an investment in national security, economic stability, environmental sustainability, and social justice. The cost of inaction has already been amply demonstrated by history. The question to ask now is, have we learnt anything at all from history?
Those who reduce this conversation to figures on a spreadsheet and economic gains overlook a fundamental truth: the true value of the land and communities east of Volta Estuary cannot be calculated in pounds, dollars or cedis. Its value lies in its people (the true wealth of a nation), its history, its assets, its contribution to Ghana’s economy, and its place in our national identity and pride. History has already delivered its verdict on the thinking that left Keta exposed in 1929.
It was short-sighted. It was unjust. And it imposed enormous costs on generations who had no voice in that decision then. We cannot afford to repeat that mistake under a different name today.
This is not simply about Southern Volta. It is about what kind of nation Ghana chooses to be now and in the future. Is Ghana a country that protects only what is immediately profitable or one that stands with all its citizens, especially those on the frontlines of climate change crises, floods, tidal waves and coastal erosion?
The decisions made today will echo for generations to come. Future Ghanaians will remember whether we chose vision over indifference, resilience over neglect, and justice over expediency. Those who believe history has forgotten the lessons of Keta in 1929 should think again.
The people of Southern Volta are watching! The nation Ghana is watching. And history is watching most of all! A word to the wise, they say, is enough.
