The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has donated food stuffs, books, clothes and cash totaling totaling GHc10,000 to victims of the Keta tidal wave disaster which occured on November 7.
A CSJ delegation led by Comrades Philip Zumanu, Nii Armah Addy and Robert Dela Mawuenyegah made the presentation on December 2, 2021 to the Members of Parliament for Ketu South and Anlo Constituencies who received the donation on behalf of the people at a short ceremony at the Parliament House in Accra.
The move, according to the Centre, was a token gesture to help alleviate the plight of residents who lost livelihoods and properties to tidal waves in Keta and its surrounding areas last month.
The donation was made through generous voluntary contributions from members, experts and Fellows of the Centre for Social Justice.
“We appreciate this kind gesture from CSJ. We would also like to use the CSJ platform to appeal to other benevolent Ghanaians to support the completion of a facility to serve as a place of shelter for the displaced residents”, said the MP for Ketu South, Hon. Abla Dzifa Gomashie, as she received the donation.
On his part, Hon. Richard Kwame Sefe, MP for the Anlo Constituency appealed to the good people of Ghana to support him to build a school for the people of Fuveme in the Anlo Constituency in the Volta Region.
About 3,000 people in the Keta Municipality were rendered homeless after tidal waves swept through their homes on Sunday, November 7. Communities such as Abutiakope, Kedzikope and Keta Central were largely affected as affected homeless residents were left with nothing to salvage.
Affected residents, mainly children and women, had their residential abodes completely destroyed by the tidal waves.
CSJ joins the likes of Former President John Dramani Mahama and corporate organizations as well as government in extending a helping hand to the victims.
Mr. Mahama donated 2,000 bags of rice, 2,000 student mattresses, 1,000 cans of tomato paste, 1,000 gallons of cooking oil and other items to the victims as well as inspected the extent of damage caused by the tidal waves at Anyanui.
Although many have attributed the cause of the disaster to the uncompleted sea defense project in the area, the Director of the Institute for Environment and Sanitation Studies at the University of Ghana, Prof. Kwasi Appeaning Addo, is of the view that completion of the project is not a lasting solution to perennial destructive tidal waves.
Prof. Addo called for a holistic approach in solving the perennial destruction caused by tidal waves in the Volta Region.
“Sea defence is a good solution but it doesn’t really give the entire solution we are looking for. Putting in sea defence structures is just solving the problem within a particular area. It also transfers the problem to other areas,” he told Evans Mensah on Joy FM’s News Night on November 8.
