Jonah Grignon | November 22, 2024
News Brief
While the community of Setsinu, in Ghana’s Volta Region, is seeing their land disappear to floods and rising tides, they are confident they have a solution to protect their lands. This farming community is one of several on a thin strip of land between Keta Lagoon and the Gulf of Guinea. They are using bunds – dirt walls along the perimeter of their fields – to mitigate the damage of flooding. With the newly-built bunds, the community members of Setsinu are beginning to see their lost land reclaimed. Selorm Akli says, “If you reclaim the land back, then like, our life is brought back. We are now coming back to our normal life that we’ve been living. The land will become new again.”
Along the coast of Ghana’s Volta region, about a two-hour drive from Accra, a thin strip of land separates two bodies of water. To the north is the freshwater of the Keta Lagoon, to the south the saltwater of the Gulf of Guinea. One main road runs through it, with communities branching out on either side toward the water. One of those communities is Setsinu. It’s home to farmers like Selorm Akli, who have been seeing their land disappear before their eyes.
Fields used for crops like tomatoes, peppers, okra, and maize are regularly flooding from heavy rains and rising tides. Mr. Akli says that seeing that land disappear is like losing a part of yourself to the tides. He says, “You wake up one morning and your farm has been flooded. Wow. It’s like your whole life has been taken away. It’s like you are empty, you don’t have anything left.”
While the problem has been exacerbated recently, it is not a new one. Olivia Abogado is 76 and says the community faced floods as far back as 30 years ago. When that happened, the people of the community came together to find a solution.
They built bunds: dirt walls that run along the perimeter of the long fields, protecting them from the water. The bunds help to mitigate the damage done by flooding.
Now, as climate change results in regular flooding, the community is returning to using bunds just like their elders. When confronting the recent flooding crisis, the community held meetings, led by farmer Simon Akukoku Avor to discuss what was to be done. They turned to the bunds.
To build them, community members check the flow of the water to determine where it will potentially flood the farms. They then dig holes to retrieve sand from the river and create a boundary around the fields. When the flood comes, the water then settles in the holes.
Mrs. Abogado says she remembers the early days of bund construction all those years ago. Back then, she said women would often serve in support roles to the men of the community, cooking food for them as they worked in the fields. Now, however, women are directly involved in the process.
Mrs. Abogado says, “We are no longer cooking for them. We will no longer sit down and watch them do everything by themselves. We also fully participate in it.”
With the newly-built bunds, the community members of Setsinu are beginning to see their lost land reclaimed. Mr. Akli says, “If you reclaim the land back, then like, our life is brought back. We are now coming back to our normal life that we’ve been living. The land will become new again.”
The community has seen additional benefits too. It has also allowed for the creation of fish ponds, which serve as another source of food.
Moreover, Mr. Akli said the bunds have had a positive impact on the community’s productivity. He says, “The biggest benefit to the community, I think, is giving us work. We are not going to be unemployed, we are getting work to do, we are getting some finances to feed ourselves and feed our families.”
As generational knowledge has helped Setsinu manage the effects of climate change, now community members are determined to pass the practice on to future generations.
Mr. Akli says, “In a way, it will continue. As time goes on, something little will also be added to it. The idea will be there but I think as times are changing, things will also be changing too.”
