By Evans Worlanyo Ameamu
Anloga (V/R), Oct. 09, GNA – Advocates have called on the Keta Municipal and Anloga District Assemblies to write adolescent girls and boys into their flood preparedness plans, warning that a plan that does not name a group cannot be relied on to protect it.
The call was made at a joint meeting of stakeholders from the two coastal districts at the Anloga District Assembly Hall with a policy brief titled “When the Water Rises, Plan for Her Too,” presented at the meeting.
The brief was prepared by Developers Net-Vee LBG, LoveAid Foundation and the Foundation for Environmental Watch, with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) through the African Youth and Adolescents Network on Population and Development (AfriYAN) Ghana.
Mr Joshua Tetteh Ayayi, a youth advocate who facilitated the session on behalf of AfriYAN Ghana, said the central message was to awaken consciousness on “a flood plan that leaves out adolescent girls, and people who need protection.”
Mr Ayayi explained to the participants that flooding on the Keta and Anlo coast was a yearly threat, such as in the November 2021 tidal waves and June 2023 floods in Keta, that left over 3,000 residents homeless, as well as the Akosombo dam spillage also in September and October 2023.
He said the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) had indicated that the 2023 spillage displaced 7,202 people in Anloga and affected 1,722 households, and that in 2026, Fuveme was hit in April, while Keta township suffered massive flooding on May 6.
Mr Ayayi stressed that the most recent official count, from the Anloga District NADMO Director, showed that 28,809 people were affected across 48 communities in June 2026 and about one in three of those affected, or 32.9 per cent, were children, and 2,146 acres of farmland were also affected.
He further explained that Keta and Anloga sat on a narrow sandbar, with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Keta Lagoon on the other, and water could therefore arrive from the sea, the lagoon or from heavy rainfall, which made floods a recurring reality rather than a rare event.
“Anloga has a Flood Contingency Plan for 2024 to 2026, which is now due for review, and is a serious document that sets ten priority focus areas and commits the district to Sphere humanitarian standards,” Mr Ayayi said.
However, the plan named five vulnerable groups namely: pregnant women, lactating mothers, children, the aged and persons with special needs, and left out adolescent girls, and in the legible pages reviewed, adolescents and menstrual supplies were not mentioned, while the plan assigned money, people and responsibility only to the groups it named.
He said the gap mattered because of the size of the adolescent population, with teenage pregnancy in Anloga rising from 13.5 per cent in 2023 to 17.4 per cent in the first half of 2025, against a district target of 11.5 per cent.
He said in the Keta Municipality, the teenage pregnancy statistics stood at 13.2 per cent in the first half of 2024 and stressed that although the brief did not claim that the floods caused teenage pregnancy, but that pregnant and parenting adolescents would be among those in any shelter.
Mr Ayayi also noted that Anloga’s plan listed 19 Ghana Education Service classrooms as safe havens, as at the 2021 census, 55.6 per cent of households within the community had no toilet facilities.
He noted that a girl in a crowded classroom-turned-shelter therefore needed privacy, a safe and lockable toilet, period supplies, a confidential point for reporting abuse, and a way back to school.
The brief made three requests which included an Adolescent Readiness Annex of nine headings in each district’s flood plan which would cover safe shelter, toilets and washing, menstrual materials, health referral, protection, school continuity, disability inclusion, adolescent participation, and a named officer with proper data collection.
The second was a pass-or-fail check of safe havens against eight simple questions before the April 2027 rains, with results sent to each Assembly by March 2027, while the third was a named officer in each Assembly to report yearly on a five-point scorecard, and two adolescent observers, one girl and a boy, on the disaster management committee.
Mr Ayayi said the demands were mostly about wording, responsibility and participation rather than large budgets, and admitted that supplies, facility repairs and training still needed to be costed with the Assemblies’ Planning Units.
He emphasised that the brief drew on the Sphere Handbook, the IASC Gender-Based Violence Guidelines, the UNFPA Minimum Initial Service Package, and the INEE Minimum Standards.
Participants were asked to agree in principle to add adolescents to the vulnerable groups at the plan review, share NADMO records for 2023 to 2026 by sex and age, and commit to the safe haven check.
A proposed timeline tasked Keta to confirm by December 2026 whether it had a flood plan, and also targeted April 2027 for adoption of the annex, naming of the officer, and seating of adolescents, after which the Volta Regional Coordinating Council and Regional NADMO would be asked to issue guidance to other coastal districts.
GNA
Edited by Maxwell Awumah/ Christabel Addo