Work on €240 million Ada Coastal Protection Project completed
Construction works on the Ada Coastal Protection Works have been completed. The €240 million two-phase project, referred to as the Ada Sea Defence Project, started in 2013 and has since been handed over to the government.
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Described as the biggest marine frontier project in the country, it is expected to protect the Ada township and its environs against erosion.
Since the construction of the project, 15-kilometre stretch of coastal bed, which was earlier lost along the Atlantic Ocean in the Ada East District in the Greater Accra Region, has been reclaimed.
President John Mahama would later commission the project this year.
Inspection
Officials of the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, led by the Chief Director of the Ministry, Alhaji Ziblim Yakubu, yesterday inspected the project that was handed over to the government last Monday.
Phases
The first phase of the project, which reclaimed five kilometres of coastline involved the construction of 15 groynes and other onshore works while the phase two which reclaimed 10km comprised mainly of beach nourishment and protective barriers.
In the final phase, a dredging vessel — THSD Congo River — was deployed on the Atlantic to suck up sand materials from the sea bed and pump them through a pipe onto the shore to reclaim the lost beach.
Systematically, engineers and construction workers implemented a system for the coastline to have a buffer against attacks by the ocean waves.
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Dredging International and International Marine and Dredging Construction (IMDC), both Belgian companies, were the contractors and consultants who undertook the project
Assurance
In a phone interview with the Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Dr Kweku Agyeman-Mensah, he said the government was aware of the effects of tidal waves and the rising sea level on the coastline and that it was determined to protect all coastlines to safeguard life and property and to promote socio-economic activities in those communities.
He, therefore, assured communities along the coast that similar interventions would be carried out to protect them from the hazards of the waves.
Background
The Ada coastline was said to be disappearing at a rate of between six to eight metres a year, posing a threat to the lives and livelihoods of the inhabitants. Many homes and infrastructure were wiped out by the sea due to tidal waves.
Several people living along the coastline were forced to evacuate their homes to safe places as the marauding sea waves approached.
The main road in front of the Ada East District Assembly offices was gradually being washed away; but for the sea protection project, the main offices would have been brought to ruin by the sea.
It was to save the situation from further deterioration and bring relief to the people that the government sought funds to undertake the project.