Mr Samuel Atta-Akyea, Minister of Works and Housing

Govt to resettle Keta tidal waves victims

Musah Yahaya Jafaru Jul - 24 - 2017 , 08:20 2 minutes read

The government is to construct affordable houses to resettle people in the Keta municipality in the Volta Region whose houses were destroyed by the tidal waves that hit the area recently.

The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Samuel Atta-Akyea, told Parliament last Thursday that a chief of Keta had offered to provide land for the housing project.

"We want the chief to secure the land for the resettlement to take place. The government takes the project seriously," he said.

Mr Atta-Akyea was answering questions posed by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Keta, Mr Richard Quashigah, on the present state of the implementation of the $40-million Blekusu/Horvi Sea Defence Project and other related matters.

Recall

A number of fishing communities on the country’s coastline were last June hit by waves that destroyed homes and other properties.

Among the worst hit were Keta in the Volta Region, Shama in the Western and Cape Coast in the Central Region.

The affected communities in the Volta Region were Blekusu, Azizadzi and Amutinu in the Ketu South District and Kedzi in the Keta Municipality.

In the Ketu South District and Keta Municipality, 272 houses were submerged, while about 1,630 people were displaced.

Sea defence project

The project involves a sea defence wall of about 4.3 kilometres along the affected coastline involving Blekusu, Horvi and their environs within the Keta municipality.

It was awarded to Messrs Amandi Holdings Limited in November 2016, at a contract sum of GH¢40,093,527, to be pre-financed by the contractor.

Mr Quashigah said the contractor had moved out of the site for the sea defence project and asked about the current state of the project.

Responding, the minister said the government had signed a cheque for the contractor, and that "as soon as it is lodged in his account, he will begin to work".

He said the scope of work on the project involved the construction of 22 armour groynes over a stretch of 4,300 metres.

He said the length of each groyne was 80 metres and the interval between the groynes was 200 metres.

Mr Atta-Akyea said the contractor had so far constructed 10 of the groynes and the overall percentage of completion was about 50 per cent at a cost of $17,597,232.

He said the government was committed to the project to meet is primary objective of mitigating the devastating effect of sea wave action resulting in erosion of the coastline, with the associated destruction of livelihood and property along the Blekusu/Aflao coastline.