Opinion leaders in Dzita angry with NDC?
Opinion leaders in Dzita in the Keta municipality in the Volta Region have expressed anger about the failure of the government to extend the sea defence project to their community to save it from sea erosion which is causing havoc.
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They, therefore, warned that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) risks being hit by voter apathy in the November 7 elections in some parts of the Anlo constituency if it fails to handle concerns about the coastal erosion in the area.
The party’s Anlo Constituency Organiser and Assembly member for the area, Mr Samuel Brass Dedzo, and some residents, who who disclosed this in an interview with the Daily Graphic said “the government has been misinformed about communities that have benefited from phase three of the sea defence project”.
The project
Construction work on the 2.8 kilometres Atorkor Sea Defence Project started in 2010 and was done in three phases at the cost of $54 million with the last phase completed in 2014.
Officially, the third phase of the sea defence was scheduled to cover Atorkor-Dzita-Anyanui. It is the continuation of the Keta Sea Defence project which saved Keta and its environs from being wiped out by sea erosion.
One of the many communities reported to have benefited from the project was Dzita but a tour of the shorelines revealed that the project is yet to reach there.
In fact, the community’s only basic school has lost three classrooms to the sea and Mr Dedzo was angered by the fact that almost all official communications about the sea defence project suggested that the community was a beneficiary of the project when the sea was wreaking havoc.
“Whoever is briefing the Works and Housing Minister is not telling him the truth. We are at risk of losing everything but everything you read about the sea defence project indicates that we don’t have a problem here, it is not true,” Mr Dedzo said.
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Election bargaining chip
As the country prepares for this year’s elections, most communities are expected to use their developmental needs as a bargaining chip and Dzita is no exception.
According to the Anlo constituency organiser, if the results of the party’s primaries where the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP), Mr Clement Kofi Humado, performed poorly in Dzita was anything to go by, then the party could suffer in the area.
“We would not vote for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) but we would not vote at all to register our disappointment’’,he said.
MP responds
The MP for the area, Mr Humado, however denied the allegations and stated that the Atorkor project ended where it should according to its design.
On voter apathy, he sounded rhetorical, saying “ It may cause voter apathy but it is when you continue voting that the door will continue to be opened for development. When we don’t vote and we lose, who are we going to ask for development?”
Writer’s email: seth.bokpe@graphic.com.gh