Sandwatch in Ghana

Ghana being classified as the gateway to Africa, has within it environment a community/city known as Teshie, Teshie as it is called is located at the southern part of Ghana and also situated at the coast which automatically makes it a fishing community. Since most of them are into fishing, some also have their own businesses which have nothing to do with fishing. Communities in Ghana are basically recognized by their inhabitants and the Teshie community happens to be where a group of people called the GA’s live. Even though I myself is not a GA, but happen to find myself as a student in one of the community high school called Teshie Presbyterian Secondary School, I really love to talk about them in terms of their Way of Life (Culture and Beliefs).
As a fishing community, it is obvious that most activities of the day will certainly take place at the beaches / shores and after a days work you can imagine how the beaches / shores might really look like, this brings much concern and thoughts into our minds on issues pertaining to the environmental sustainability of our beaches.

As a member of the Simba Youth Club; which seeks to empower the youth, for Cultural Exchange and Community Development, I was very glad upon hearing our participation in the “Sandwatch Project” which in summary helps the youth to develop skills relating to critical thinking and conflict resolution which instills a sense of caring for beaches and the environment as being narrated by our group leader.
After a short briefing from our group leader on how the youth can take positive action towards the attainment of environmental sustainability on our beaches / coasts, we decided to pay a visit to the Sun Shine Beach found in the Teshie. On reaching the beach and with reference to the briefing, we realized that much work needed to be done to change the devastating state of our beach.
Our first step was to organize a clean up exercise on a section of the beach environment which was filled with debris all over; we also measured the beach width, length and monitored the waves which indicated how much impact the waves have on the beach. This was also followed by a check on the nature of the water (sea) in terms of its cleanliness and purity, but to our amazement we realized that the water (sea) had become oily due the activities of oil miners on some section of the sea. We couldn’t act effectively at the moment but we intend to send a report for action to be taken. We will also request if contact can be made to our UNESCO office in Ghana concerning our participation in the Sandwatch Project, so that the support can be granted us in our quest to attain a sustainable coastal development.
As a new team for Simba Youth, we pledge to live up to our expectation in relation to the objectives of the Sandwatch Project. Lets all do our best to keep the flame burning.
Adonis N. Quainoo
Simba Youth Club
T.P.S.S- Accra, Ghana
EMPOWERING THE YOUTH; FOR CULTURAL EXCHANGE / COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT.