31/10/2025
EDITORIAL
WARNING: A LONG READ
Ada Sea Defence Project — The Criminal Negligence and Shame to the NDC: To Whom Much Is Given, Much Is Expected
By Seth Priceless Ala-Amegavie
A Citizen, Not a Spectator | Community Development Strategist
There are failures, and then there are betrayals dressed as progress. The Ada Sea Defence Project stands as both — a textbook case of political negligence wrapped in glossy speeches and ribbon-cutting ceremonies. It is the scar on a loyal land that has given everything to a political tradition that has given almost nothing in return.
For over three decades, Ada has worn the colors of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) like a badge of identity. Since 1992, the NDC has not merely won elections here — it has inherited devotion. When the constituency was divided into Ada and Sege in 2012, both seats remained painted red, black, green, and white. From the days of Hon. Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe-Ghansah’s first term in 2013 and now in her fourth running through 2029, the Ada people have stayed loyal.
Thirty years. Four terms in session. Sixteen years of one MP to hit. And yet — what do we have to show for it?
The Cry of a Coastline
For decades, the coastline of Ada — from Azizakpe, Kewunor and Azizanya to Anyamam and P**e — has been disappearing before our eyes. The sea swallows land, homes, schools, and memories at a rate of 6 to 8 meters every year. Entire communities have been displaced. Livelihoods from fishing, tourism, and salt mining have been buried under the tides.
When the West Africa Coastal Areas Management Program (WACA) launched in 2015, it offered Ghana a chance to correct decades of neglect. Backed by the World Bank, designed by IMDC, and executed by Dredging International, the Ada Sea Defence Project promised to protect 15 kilometers of our coastline — a stretch from Ada Foah through the western Volta River mouth.
Work began in 2013, and the people rejoiced. At last, they thought, a government had remembered them. Engineers praised it as “one of the best projects to happen to Ghana.” Politicians took credit. Chiefs gave blessings. Party youth found employment. But hidden beneath the sandbags and stones was the oldest tragedy in Ghanaian governance — projects without prudence, and politics without conscience.
The Criminal Negligence
Whether the project cost €600 million, €240 million, or €67 million — as various reports suggest — the truth is that it failed to defend what it promised to protect. Experts, assembly members, and coastal engineers warned: groynes alone will not save Ada. They called for d***s — long, stabilizing barriers designed to control sea levels and prevent erosion. But their caution was ignored, it begs the question the sort of community enegagements that was done if any
Leadership — political and traditional — signed off on a design that looked good on paper but performed poorly in reality. The result? Millions spent, but the sea still advancing. Properties still sinking. Lives still disrupted.
Ada’s only coastal road from Kasseh to Ada-Foah was destroyed by heavy project machinery. The contractors promised to fix it. A decade later, it remains a symbol of deceit — dust, potholes, and silence.
The Shame
“This is not just inefficiency.
It is political cruelty.
Moral bankruptcy.
A betrayal of trust.”
This is not just technical failure. It is moral bankruptcy — a betrayal of loyalty. For over 30 years, Ada’s faith in the NDC has been unshaken, but what has that loyalty earned?
• Over 70,000 households in Ada still live without toilets.
• Communities still drink from unsafe sources while the Volta River glistens mockingly nearby.
• Farmers grow tomatoes and watermelons without a single processing factory.
• Schools crumble. Hospitals like Ada East District Hospital, serving more than 5,000 people, lack basic equipment.
• Youth unemployment is rising, and the only defense built is for the sea, not for the future.
Now i have more questions
1. What is the true cost of the Ada Sea Defence Project — €600 million, €240 million, or €67 million — and why do radically conflicting figures exist across official and media reports?
2. Why did government and project authorities ignore technical recommendations for d***s, relying mainly on groynes when engineers and stakeholders warned it would not solve long-term erosion?
3. Who is responsible for the continued destruction of shoreline communities like Azizakpe, Azizanya, Anyamam, and Lolonya, despite the project supposedly “protecting” them?
4. Why were displaced communities not resettled, compensated, or protected, and who approved the continuation of the project despite human displacement?
5. Why has the Kasseh–Ada Foah road — damaged by project machinery and promised for reconstruction by contractors — remained unrepaired nearly a decade later?
6. Were Ada chiefs and local leaders misinformed, influenced, or pressured to endorse a project design experts warned was insufficient?
7. Was there a Social and Environmental Impact Assessment, and if yes, why did it not prevent teenage pregnancies, community disruption, and loss of livelihoods during the project?
8. Where are the performance audits, impact reports, and monitoring documents proving the project met its stated objectives — and why are they not public?
9. What long-term coastal management plan exists to maintain, upgrade, or correct the coastal defense system — or was this simply a political vanity project?
10. After 30+ years of unbroken loyalty to the NDC, why has Ada received a project that delivered partial protection, disrupted communities, destroyed key infrastructure, and failed to provide long-term security?
And yet, during every election, the slogans return — Eyɛ Zu, Eyɛ Za, Eyɛ Zuzza!
Songs rise, T-shirts print, and voters queue. Even divided, the NDC in Ada knows no defeat. The people joke that if the party presented a goat as candidate, it would win hands down. But what has this blind loyalty brought us except neglect dignified as gratitude?
The Political Irony
To whom much is given, much is expected. Ada has given loyalty, trust, and time. The NDC has returned negligence, excuses, and slogans. The Sea Defence Project should have been a symbol of renewal — instead, it became a monument of irresponsibility.
We were told the sea would be tamed. Instead, our development drowned.
We were told our road would be fixed. Instead, it was forgotten.
We were told this project was salvation. Instead, it became seduction — another photo opportunity masking incompetence.
The Call for a New Covenant
Ada deserves more than pity and promises. We must wake from this political hypnosis. Development is not a reward for loyalty; it is a right. And if one party has failed for 30 years, it is time to demand competition — not out of hatred, but out of hope.
It is not treason to expect results. It is not betrayal to demand accountability. It is wisdom to refuse neglect.
The people of Ada must stand as citizens, not spectators. Because the sea is not our only enemy — silence is.
Ada does not need pity. Ada needs performance.
And if those who have been trusted for decades cannot deliver, then the next election must deliver something else — truth.
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