Keta Sea Defence Project makes strides

The $85 million Keta Sea Defence project has chalked significant achievements barely 16 months after taking off which raise great hopes for a brighter future for people in the catchment area.

So far, the Great Lake Dredge and Dock Company, the American company executing the project, has constructed five out of seven breakwater systems made up of 150-metre long composite rocky structures built from the coastline into the seas, designed to check coastal erosion. The company has further dredged the Keta Lagoon extensively and built a five kilometre road from Havedzi to Adzido, as part of plans to re-establish the eight kilometre old road link to Keta.

Already some drivers are unofficially connecting through the area to Keta. There are also visible signs of advanced work in the process of reclaiming 300 hectares of coastal land lost to sea erosion over the years.

These observations were made when the Volta Regional Minister, Mr Kwasi Owusu Yeboah, led service commanders of the Volta Regional Security Council to tour the site last Wednesday with the view to having first hand information on the incidence of armed robbery at the marine construction site and a labour dispute between management and workers of the company.

Mr Javier Diaz, Dredge Captain of the company, who conducted the minister and his entourage round the site, said work has not resumed at the site owing to the labour dispute. According to him, all the expatriate staff are currently residing in Accra, pending the resolution of the labour dispute for work to resume. According to a source, the bone of contention is the disagreement by management to the demand of workers to increase their present wage of ?716 per hour paid to them.

Mr Diaz made it clear that the present hold-up on work was due to the labour dispute and not due to insecurity, adding that the present arrangement on security is appreciated by management. Briefing the minister and his entourage, Superintendent of Police, Mr S. S. Wuddah, Keta Divisional Commander of Police, said one Gabriel Goboho, a form three student of Saint Paul's Secondary School, has been identified as the chief suspect in connection with the armed raid on the expatriate staff of the company.

He said the suspect is on the run but his girlfriend, Mama Yesukede, has been arrested and granted bail in connection with the retrieval of a locally manufactured pistol and cartridges found in her boyfriend's room which was suspected to have been used in the armed robbery.

Mr Wuddah said investigations still continue. On his part, the regional minister assured management of the company that the Regional Security Council would take the necessary steps to forestall any acts of armed robbery or violence by workers, adding that the necessary dialogue will be pursued with the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) of the Trades Union Congress to address the labour dispute to avoid further delay in the execution of the project.

Mr Owusu Yeboah urged the police to conduct their investigations meticulously to enable the REGSEC to assess the situation critically to curb future acts of lawlessness. It would be recalled that the Keta Sea Defence has come under armed robbery attacks on three occasions in six months. In the latest incident, the robbers stormed the residence of the expatriates at Gary Kope at Weta in the early hours of April 10, vandalised the place and finally made away with property worth millions of cedis. They also injured five persons after holding them hostage for about an hour.