By: Jude Tackie
For generations, the once popular “Dansoman Beach” at Gbegbeyise was a source of pride and economic livelihood for the coastal community. Fishermen hauled in bountiful catch.
Families gathered on its sandy shores during festivals and holidays like Easter, Christmas and Homowo. Children frolicked in the waves as elders looked on.
But today, that idyllic scene is being choked out by a thick layer of indiscriminate pollution and human waste. Where there were once rolling dunes, heaps of refuse and faeces now line the coastline. The sparkling waters have turned murky and foul.
“The situation now is bad and gets worse with each passing day. “You’ll come here and every 5 steps you see human waste all over,” laments local youth Shadrack Bryan Asamoah. “It’s not attracting what it’s supposed to attract now.”
The tragic degradation of this once-beloved beach is the result of decades of human environmental abuse met with government negligence. Despite a 2011 study warning that coastal Accra faced severe inundation from rising sea levels due to climate change, little was done to protect and preserve the Dansoman shoreline.
By 2021, parts of Gbegbeyise were swamped during heavy rains and high tides, submerging houses and other infrastructure. A long-stalled sea defence project finally began, with a reported $150 million budget from the World Bank to construct barriers. But rather than respect these partial fortifications, some locals simply saw them as new spots to litter and defecate.
“Those who are trying to make the place attractive need to realize that it can never be an attraction and never serve their interest unless they tidy up,” says Asamoah. “It’s like they’re trying to create paradise in a dump.”
Traditional leader Nii Adotei Kootse, the Gbegbe Mankralo told happyghana.com, he has been fighting to preserve the coast’s natural beauty and economic potential for decades. He oversaw cleanup efforts in the past, but much of that work was undone as the ocean’s advance intensified. He hopes the defence project, coupled with coastal dunes and fortification as well as community environmental wardens, can turn the tide.
“Our people need to understand this and prevent the sand winning,” he urges. “This will stop it from moving three feet every year.”
But time is running out for the beach at Gbegbeyise. Studies show about 84% of locals are aware of sea level rise, yet there are still “poor measures” in place to adapt.
Meanwhile, unbridled pollution and human waste flushed directly into the coastal waters are killing marine life and defiling what was once a scenic treasure.
“We’ve almost lost ourselves,” says the Gbegbe Mankralo, “…and if we don’t stand up we won’t have any water bodies and we’d destroy the face of the sea.”
Nii Adotei Kooste stresses concerted action on multiple fronts to restore the beach’s sanity and prevent its permanent loss. For him, community leaders need to be empowered to organize mass cleanup drives to remove accumulated refuse, while authorities must provide proper waste disposal facilities. Dedicated sanitation workers could be hired from among local youth, creating jobs while caring for the beach.
Unless drastic action is taken by authorities and community leaders, likely, the once popular Dansoman Beach will soon be lost entirely, another environmental victim of human indecency and climate’s intensifying wrath. With it will be washed away a piece of Ghana’s coastal heritage and identity.
