Save Azizanya
By Esther Sackey

NOTE: You must have RealPlayer installed to view all video files.

The people of Azizanya face imminent displacement from the land that has been home to them for years. The threat is from two fronts: the destructive effect of the sea on their lives and properties on one front and on the other front, ejection from land owners who find the site more appropriate for the hospitality industry. Hotels and chalets have taken over farm lands.

Azizanya is a fishing community along the Volta Lake estuary in the Dangbe East District of the Greater Accra Region. A road, not tarred, divides the community into two distinct parts. On one side is affluence. Concrete buildings, walled with metal gates adorned with a variety of flowers, including bougainvillaea. On the other side is squalor. Thatched huts with dirty compounds. The soil on this side is dark and soggy with houseflies flying everywhere. There are marks on every hut indicating the level of the last floods.

The chief fisherman of Azizanya, Torgbui Akrofi Kabu, says that ten miles into the sea used to be dry land and that was where they lived. Today there are no lands on which to farm anymore because what is left has been taken over by the “rich people”.

The only occupation in the village now is fishing and yields from it can not support families any longer. According to Torgbui Kabu the fishes have gone far into the sea and fishermen have to go further to be able to caught fishes that have economic value. They can only do this with boat fitted with outboard motor and these, according to Torgbui, is beyond the means of the fisher folks.

A visit to the beach saw fishermen landing catch of anchovies, called aborbi in Ewe. This confirms Torgbui Kabu’s assertion that their way of fishing is no longer economical because even though aborbi is a rich source of protein it sells for less in the market.

Despite this Torgbui and his people are reluctant to leave Azizanya and to engage in other occupations and vocations. He said that fishing has been their main source of livelihood from generation to generation.

“We do not know how to undertake other jobs so we can not leave the sea”, says Joe a fisherman from the community.

Another fisherman, Gameli, says that their situation would improve if a sea defence wall is built for them. According to Gameli, Azizanya is not the only village suffering from the ravages of the sea. In Ocanseykope, for example, the primary school had to be relocated because the sea waves goes right onto the veranda of the classrooms.

Government officials who come here after each disaster agree that something has to be done and quickly too. They agree with the villagers that a sea defence wall is the solution to the problem,

“The furthest these officials have gone is the verbal promise” says Gameli accusingly. “Suddenly the floods will come and everything that we have toiled for is washed away”

Mr. Kofi Larweh, Director of Radio Ada, confirms the devastating effects of the sea. According to Mr. Larweh, research has established that at least two metres of land is lost to the sea every week, at certain times of the year. If this phenomenon continues, very soon the whole of Ada will be washed away. Already some schools have been relocated due to their proximity to the sea. During high tide, some roads along the coastal area are rendered unmotorable.

Still, Azizanya unlike most fishing and farming communities along the coast has safe drinking water and electricity. These amenities have been provided at great cost to the state and the villagers wonder if these amenities must be left for destruction by the sea.

“It is not possessions alone that are washed away when the floods come; sometimes lives are lost when people try to save others from being carried away by the sea. It is more devastating when it happens in the night”, says Torgbui Kabu.

A woman in the village, Mawuse, asks “of what use is water and light, if the people for whom it is provided are not sure if they would live to see the next day”.

Mr.Theophilus Agbaka, the presiding member of the Dangbe East Assembly, says that the Government is very aware of the “predicament” of the people living along the coast, especially the people of Azizanya because the owner of that piece of land is ejecting them.

Mr.Agbaka says that the plight of the people was acknowledged in the 2004, 2005 as well as the 2006 budget statements. The need to protect the people from the destructive effects of the sea has also been stated in these budget statements. He says that he agrees with the residents of Azizanya that a defence wall will solve the problem but says,

“I don’t think the whole Ghana has the money for a sea defence wall, the money for building a sea defence wall is not a small money”

He says, he knows that the Government is looking for funding to build a defence wall but does not know when the money will be got.

According to Mr. Agbaka, the Assembly has asked the people to leave but they have refused saying that their source of livelihood is fishing and for that reason they cannot leave.

He says that the problem facing the people of Azizanya is beyond the building of a sea defence wall because someone is claiming ownership of the land and the case is currently in court. The Assembly has decided to prevail on the person to agree on an out of court settlement. The issue, of out of court settlement, is therefore one of the main issues to be discussed at the next meeting of the Assembly.

Mr. Alex Tetteh-Enyo, the Member of Parliament for the area, says that the problem of the people of Azizanya “is a very serious one” and that three months ago the parliamentary sub-committee on Water Resources, Works and Housing visited the place to assess the damage caused by a recent flooding of the area. And last week the traditional authority, made of the chiefs and opinion leaders, undertook a walk dubbed “the sea defence wall walk” to bring attention to the plight of the people.

He says that he has written a memorandum to the President drawing his attention to the problems. He hopes that some solutions would be found in the interim while the funding for the ultimate solution, which is the building of a defence wall is being sought.

Gameli says that the land they are occupying does not belong to anybody because it was reclaimed for them by the Volta River Authority (VRA) when they were displaced from their former abode by the sea. And that through persistent appeals to the former Government, the VRA came with their dredging machines and they, the village folks, provided labour.

"This land was carved from the river for us and no one can lay claim to it. It is the result of our sweat and blood and we wont relinquish it to anyone” Gameli says angrily.

Torgbui Kabu says that the land on which the Manet Hotel is located belonged to them. One day the Assembly came and said they would build houses for them in exchange for that land. An agreement was reached to that effect.

"But all we got were kiosks, the storm came and the next moment the kiosks were washed away,” says Torgbui.

Mr. Agbaka refuted this allegation and said that the people refused to go to the place they were allocated with the excuse that it was far from the sea. They said that the only way they could make a living is by staying close to the river or the sea.