April 6, 2025.
His Excellency John Dramani Mahama,
President of the Republic of Ghana,
Flagstaff House,
Accra, Ghana.
Dear Mr. President,
One Month On: Urgent Action Needed to Address Coastal Erosion at Agavedzi, Salakope, Amutsinu and Adina Communities in Southern Volta.
Your Excellency,
I write with a heavy heart and renewed urgency to remind you of my earlier open letter regarding the devastating impact of tidal waves and coastal erosion affecting the communities of Agavedzi, Salakope, Amutsinu, and Adina in the Ketu South Municipality of Volta Region.
Your prompt visit to these areas on 6th March 2025 brought a great sense of hope to many, especially the affected persons. The people believed that their plight had finally caught the attention of Ghana’s President and solution was at hands.
Mr. President, before your visit on that day, I wrote an open letter to you. However, one month later, and to the best of my knowledge (I stand to be corrected) not a single one of the four urgent requests I presented has been actually acted upon in real practical terms.
As a reminder, I respectfully requested the following immediate actions:
1.The declaration of a State of Emergency in the affected communities;
- The evacuation and resettlement of displaced and at-risk residents;
- Immediate emergency works to protect the Keta-Denu Littoral Road from collapse;
- The implementation of long-term coastal protection interventions, notably the long-delayed Blekusu Phase 2 Project.
Mr. President, remember that after your visit, between 14th – 17th March and again from 27th – 31st March 2025, these communities experienced further assaults by the sea. Homes were destroyed, families displaced, and public infrastructure endangered. The trauma continues, and the seemingly silence from leadership is not helping issues.
Your Excellency, the people of Agavedzi, Salakope, Amutsinu, and Adina are not second-class citizens. They are Ghanaians too – proud, resilient, but now overwhelmed by the cruelty of nature and the seemingly indifference of those with the power to help. This is the time they deserve utmost love and care.
This is not just a call for compassion – it is a call for responsibility. These affected people need your voice and your influence now more than ever to bring national and international solutions and urgent responses to this ongoing humanitarian and environmental disaster.
Leadership is best demonstrated in moments like this – when the vulnerable cry out and those with power act swiftly and decisively. Indeed, your swift visit was apt, timely and much appreciated, but the people want concrete and practical actions to follow. I therefore, urge you to use your position, as the Number One Man of the land, to champion their cause and ensure action is taken swiftly to avert further loss and restore dignity to the lives shattered by these tidal waves and coastal erosion.
Mr. President, time is of the essence. The people of Southern Volta, especially those in the affected communities, are at their wits’ end. The situation is dire, and the window for effective intervention is rapidly closing. I implore you to exercise your leadership, marshal the necessary resources, and collaborate with relevant authorities and organisations to address this urgent crisis.
Any further delay and failure to act decisively and now will result in an unimaginable environmental and humanitarian disaster.
The people of Southern Volta, the entire nation and indeed the whole world, are watching. The time to act is now or never.
I sincerely hank you, Mr. President.
Yours respectfully,
-Signed-
Joel Kofi Degue
Concerned Citizen and Advocate for Environmental and Coastal Justice
Dzelukope, Keta Volta Region, Ghana. (+233242501638/joel.degue@gmail.com)
