The Acting Director of the Hydrological Services Department (HSD) of the Ministry of Works and Housing, Hubert Osei Owusu-Ansah, has stated that sand winning activities at the beaches is a major contributing factor to the worsening situation at the beaches.
This, he noted, is leading to tidal waves that have caused havoc in some parts of the country’s beaches.
His comments give credence to a statement made by the Deputy Majority Leader and Member of Parliament for the Effutu Constituency, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, that, the recent tidal waves that have destroyed houses and caused the relocation of about 4,000 people at three communities in Volta Region, could partly be blamed on sand winning activities in that area.
According to Owusu-Ansah, the impact of climate change and sea level rise is a major issue now affecting communities and that, his department has had cause to caution people against the act due to the possible effects it is likely to have.
“Sand winning is a cause of major erosion. We have waves impacting on the beaches so the wave energy is transferred onto the beaches. If sand winning takes place, the beaches get deprived of sand and the waves move closely into the community. That is how tidal waves occurred,” he stated.
Mr. Osei Owusu Ansah stated these when he appeared as a guest on Joy FM’s weekend political analysis programme – Newsfile hosted by Sampson Lardy Anyenini on Saturday.
He explained that there are two main causes of tidal waves – Natural causes, which are as a result of the Wave Action or strong waves impacting the beaches to cause coastal erosion, and Man-made cause, which manifests in the form of sand winning at the beaches.
“When the beaches are deprived of the sand, it weakens the surface and the wave is able to move in to destroy houses and move into town”, Mr Owusu-Ansah stressed.
He said, in the course of constructing sea defense wall, the department has had to deal with issues of sand winning at the beaches and it has always been a worry.
On the same, programme, a former lecturer at the Institute for Environment and Sanitation Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon, Dr. Philip Neri Quashigah, said he knew the terrain in Keta so well, because he has lived there before.
He also agreed with the impact of sanding winning even though he said he could not tell of the magnitude of the activity along that stretch.
“Sand winning removes the protection that, the land gets and this increases the vulnerability. That is why we must put a stop to it,” he stated.
He said per the regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), sand winning activities at the beaches are illegal and must not be encouraged.
For solutions, all panelists on the show agreed that, there must be education to tell the people that, the act of sand winning at the beaches has negative effects.
They also called for the enforcement of the relative laws as well as the involvement of community leaders in the education drive.
With this development, the sensational attacks by the Volta MPs Caucus led by Mr Rockson-Nelson Dafiamekpor on the Deputy Majority Leader in Parliament has therefore become unfounded, because same has been confirmed by the Experts mentioned above.
