By Evans Worlanyo Ameamu
Anloga (V/R), June 18, GNA-Acres of farmland in some communities within the Anloga District of the Volta Region have been submerged under rising floodwaters, triggering panic among farmers who depended entirely on crops cultivated on low-lying areas.
Residents and farmers who spoke to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) said the water levels were rising steadily across many farming communities, where crops planted on raised beds were visibly underwater with imminent destruction within weeks if the inundation continued at the current pace.
Mr Obed Deladem Fomevor, a farmer at Dzita, described scenes of helplessness as crops planted with their savings, labour, and hope slowly disappeared beneath advancing floodwaters.
“We have invested heavily in seedlings and fertilisers, but as you can see our inputs for the current season are going away, and we are now losing everything,” he said.
He stated that the potential losses threaten more than a seasonal income decrease.
He warned that harvests destroyed would leave families to be unable to meet basic needs, including school fees, healthcare costs, and daily sustenance, which would deepen poverty in already vulnerable communities.
Mr Fomevor expressed frustration that flooding of Dzita farmlands was not new and said that the same communities suffer identical agricultural losses year after year, yet no sustainable structural solution has been implemented by the authorities to address the root causes of recurring inundation.
He said: “Our long-standing demand from the farmers and opinion leaders is the urgent dredging of the Keta Lagoon. The dredging will allow excess water with nowhere to drain to flow freely into the lagoon, and it will reduce hydraulic pressure on farmlands and residential areas.”
He emphasised that agriculture is the backbone of life in Anloga District as well as the whole country, which feeds families, generates incomes, sustains local markets, and anchors the social and economic fabric of communities, and continued failure to protect farmlands amounts to systemic neglect of the rural areas.
Other farmers the GNA interacted with appealed to the Anloga District Assembly, the Volta Regional Coordinating Council, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the NADMO, and the Ministry of Works and Housing to deploy technical teams to assess the flooding and provide emergency support.
Farmers specifically called for immediate steps toward dredging the Keta Lagoon as a long-term intervention to permanently mitigate annual flooding, alongside short-term relief to save the current cropping season.
Some noted that the flooding posed a severe threat to crop yields for the season and warned that without prompt drainage or emergency water management, losses in Anloga District could be substantial and would worsen food insecurity.
Experts cautioned that failure to dredge the Keta Lagoon and maintain drainage systems in low-lying Anloga communities would create a ticking time bomb in each rainy season and urged government to treat lagoon dredging as a national priority, not a discretionary project.
Farmers of Dzita and broader Anloga said they have shown resilience through years of recurring floods but deserve better from elected representatives and national government and stressed that the time for promises and studies has passed, and what is needed now is immediate relief for affected farmers and decisive action on lagoon dredging to protect harvests and restore economic security.
The GNA observed that crops such as maize, onion, okra, among other farmlands were submerged in the floodwaters in communities such as Dzita, Anyanyui and Anloga among others.
GNA
Edited by Maxwell Awumah/Benjamin Mensah