EFFECT OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS ON WETLANDS.

A CASE STUDY
OF KWAPRO AND ANLOTOWN IN CAPE COAST MUNICIPALITY OF
GHANA.

By WANYOR KWADWO

K. WANYOR CONSULT, Box 268, Sunyani -Ghana ,wanyor@gmail.com

ABSTRACT.

Background and Introduction.

Flood has been particularly severe but is no mean uncharacteristic in Ghana. High water levels and
extreme flood had been recorded over the years. The Cape Coast Municipality is one of the flood
prone areas in Ghana since the land elevation in most of its areas are below sea level. There are
many contributing factors that increase the likelihood of severe flooding during runoff.

Findings.

The study found out that, the wetland could be perceived as a sacred place for gods. Some
residents did not have an idea the role the wetlands play in flood management. Subsequently they
lack the adequate authority to punish whiles others are due to lack of information from the
appropriate institutions. In the case that the wetlands serve the community very well then one
would expect that the wetlands are protected. The responsibility of the stakeholders to manage the
wetland has not been the case according to the institutions involve and residents in the community.
Representatives of these institutions, National Disaster Management Organisation, Environmental
Protection Agency, Town and country planning and Lands commission admitted during an
interview and indicated reasons been the unavailability of clear legislation that direct them to
protect the wetland

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Introduction

With increased agricultural intensity many wetland areas have been converted to farmland
(Adams 1988). Wetlands have been proven to provide many valuable services including bio-
geo-chemical benefits and wildlife habitat. However, in the past, the role that wetlands play
in alleviating flood impacts has not been clear. The Wetlands of Ghana form an ecologically
valuable resource providing feeding, roosting and nesting sites for thousands of migratory
and resident birds; marine turtles; many species of fish; plant genetic materials for research;
and a major source of income especially for poor communities. (Ref)

The wetland ecosystems are distributed over the entire country and constitute about 10% of the
country’s total land surface. ’Flood as a natural hazard has caused a lot of uproar in recent times

in Ghana. Most memorable floods that resulted in disaster and became topical were June 3rd 2015
flood in Accra and June 2016 also in Accra. (Ref) There have also been pockets of flooding across
the country for which Cape Coast is no exception. The physical and economic damage to public
and private property was highly substantial. Flood has been particularly severe but is no mean
uncharacteristic in Ghana. High water levels and extreme flood had been recorded over the years.
(Ref) There are many contribution factors that increase the likelihood of severe flooding during
runoff. These can include bad drainage systems, wetland areas developed for human settlement
and also a high level of precipitation experience during the raining season. Couple with this,
wetlands plays a very important role in flood prevention if it is given the needed attention when
developing an area. The research is aimed at looking into the role wetlands plays in flood
management and prevention.

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Wetlands are supposed to serve as an enhancement in reducing the flow of water with high velocity
and also serve as a habitat for some organisms. It reduces the intensity of flood to the barest
minimum. Unfortunately, some wetlands in Cape Coast have been turned into human settlements,
sand wining site; refuse dumping, and irrigation sites and therefore expose these wetlands to
flooding whenever there is a high rainfall. This results in loss of lives and property and goes a long
way to deepen their poverty levels. Thus, raising community awareness about flood and the
important role wetland plays in its prevention is one of the purposes of the study. The study looks
at flood protection measures, conduct risk assessment, increase building resilience and evacuate
the elderly, young and disabled during the flood. This will help reduce the impact of the flood on
the vulnerable people.

Map of Cape Coast municipality

The area of study is the Cape Coast Municipality of the Central Region, Ghana. Some two key
wetlands areas that were considered are Kwapro and Anglotown a suberb of the Cape Coast
Municiplaity.

Figure 1: Map of Cape Coast Metropolis show sites of Kwapro and Anlotown

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METODOLOGY

The study was qualitative in nature and therefore adopted the descriptive approach. The descriptive
approach was preferred because it allows for an in-depth analysis of a particular situation and what
the perspectives are on particular issues. The snowball approach was used to select the key
informants to be interviewed whilst convenient approach was also used to select the various
institutions for the interview. The target population of the study was the residents of Kwapro, and
Anglotown in Cape Coast Municipality. Personnel each from National Disaster Management
Organisation (NADMO), The |Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Town and Country
Planning and the Land Commission and questionnaire used for the interview as were part of our
supplementary data. The data was obtained through in-depth interview guide. There was an
observational checklist that helped us to get other data that were necessary for the study. The
responses were analyzed with reference to their remarks and their implied meanings were
discussed.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

A total of twenty three (23) respondents participated in the study. The researchers were able to
retrieve responses from key institutions such as Environmental Protection Agency, NADMO and
Lands commission on their role in the management of wetlands.

Resident’s Perception on the Role of Wetlands in Flood Management.

In finding the perception of the respondents on the role wetlands in flood management, it was
important to find out their knowledge on wetlands and its benefits. A Lecturer who doubles as at
resident at Kwapro Association as well as a Senior Lecturer with University of Cape Coast the
Geography Department at University of Cape Coast, remarked:

“The whole Kwaprow is a wetland area, the type which is called Dambo. The
nature of the wetlands at Kwaprow is a complex shallow wetland which is normally
seen in southern and eastern Africa particularly in Zambia and Zimbabwe.”

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However, the role of the wetland in flood management is not functional due to human activities
that are ongoing there. Most of them perceived the wetlands as sacred groves and a place where
one of their gods are reside. One community leader remarked:

“This wetland has been of great help in protecting this community. Within this
wetland, there is a portion called “male god” (Nana Anomee) where the men in the
community make use of it and the female in the community also makes use of a
portion of the wetland which is their female god called Nana Gruma.”

Similarly another elder indicated as follows:

“In our community when someone is seriously ill and they don’t get a possible cure,
the fetish priest for the town goes to enquire the source of the sickness or the actual
problem from the wetlands and when the demands of the god is fulfilled, the person
becomes well.”

Some respondents perceived the wetlands to be a source of drinking water to the community. When
it comes to their understanding of the functions of the wetlands in flood management, most of
them did not have an idea about the role wetlands plays in flood management hence an elderly
household head remarked:

“Whenever our community gets flooded, we believe it is a way the god are trying
to cleans the filth of the town as the flood certainly recedes between three to four
days.”

This is contrary to what has been established that for many wetlands, flood inundation is necessary
for their survival and hence upstream efforts to reduce flooding can threaten the existence of those
wetlands (Zedler and Kercher, 2005). It is a novelty to know that some of the community members
think the wetlands is a sacred place for their gods.

Human Activities Affecting Wetlands

When the respondents were asked to state their views on the effect of their activities on the
wetlands, it was revealed that they knew their activities have very detrimental effects on the
wetlands. Majority of the respondents in Kwapro believe these activities are the cause of the

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reduction of the size of the wetlands and its benefit as compared to some years ago. A community
elder in Kwapro remarked that:

“People in this community engage in sand winning and sell sand from the wetlands
as a source of income. This creates bigger holes and stagnant waters that are not
useful. Then also those who are building on the wetland use the sand around to fill
their homes and also divert the water in the wetland to prepare the land for
building.”

Some of the common activities were building, sand wining, refuse dump and water diversion for
building and irrigation on the wetland which they claim poses a lot of health risk to the community.
Upon our observation during the interview it was observe that such activities do occur in the
community as shown in plate 1

Plate: 1 dumping of refuse in the wetland, Anlotown plate: 2 refuse dumping site at Anlotown

Plate 3: building construction in Anlotown plate 4: wetland settlement in kwapro

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However given that very little quantitative information concerning human activities on wetlands
impact in the past, the above information is quite observational. Literature that currently exists
allow us to determine at best, that adverse and beneficial effect to wetland have occurred due to
lack of knowledge and associated human activities.(Ref)

Measures to Preserve Wetlands

In this study we sought to find out from our respondents, some of the measures the communities
have put in place to preserve the wetlands. In Kwapro, it was made known to us that they do not
allow people to go near the wetland on Sundays and there is also a ban on fishing during the dry
season. This according to them is to allow the little water in the wetlands to remain until the water
levels rises again. A community leader remark:

“In our community we frown on disobeying the laws of the land because that is also
a disobedience to our gods. Our gods will punish us if we disobey them hence if
anyone is caught fishing in the dry season and on Sundays he/she will be made to
slaughter ten rams and five bottles of schnapps.”

The residents of Anlotown were not different in terms of measures to preserve their wetlands.
According to them, there is a ban on dumping of refuse into the wetlands and also building close
to the wetlands. A community leader remarked:

“We have been able to come up with a ban to stop people from throwing refuse into
the wetland but that has not been successful because people dump the refuse in the
night. We have tried and is very difficult since we do not have money to pay people
to stay and monitor the place at night for any culprit. Once more, since the
authorities have not demarcated the boundaries of wetland for us it has become
difficult for us to stop encroachers from building close to the wetlands.”

This implies that the communities need to be educated on their effort to preserve the wetlands as
well as the mandated institutions also activating their punishable regulations and also getting closer
to these communities. According to them hardly do they see authorities come over to educate or
advise them even though a senior Lecturer and resident at Kwaprow indicated that officials from
Environmental Protection Agency come around to see what can be done about the wetlands.

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Role of Stakeholders in Protecting Wetlands

The desire to protect wetlands entails the ability of institutions to be responsible for the protection
of the wetlands. An interview with the Land Management Officer at the Lands commission
revealed that, they are not mandated to protect the wetlands or undertake any specific role on
wetlands and he remarked:

“When the Town and Country Planning does their demarcation, they notify us with
a copy of the plan then from there we can prepare documents on them. If some of
the lands are wetlands we acknowledge them as such and will not give permit on
them for residential construction.”

This implies that it is possible for someone to go in for those lands to do for example fish farming
but at the end will divert to residential settlement and with this the community cannot do anything
to stop it as captured by an earlier remark by a community leader in Anlotown.

An interview with a Senior Disaster Control Officer from the National Disaster Management
Organisation in Cape Coast also reiterated the position the Lands Commission that they do not
have specific regulations governing the wetlands. He remarked:

“Currently, we can only advise on the issues related to the environment but since
wetlands in cape coast have not been properly identified there have not been any
attempt to protect them.”

This also implies that if disaster doesn’t strike in these communities, the National Disaster
Management organization might not even go there for any education on how to stay safe from
disasters in these communities and this goes to affirm the response a landlady at kwapro gave, she
remarked:

“The only time I saw the National Disaster Management Organization here was
when the community was heavily flooded some time ago even though the Municipal
Assembly has been here on two occasions to dredge the water ways leading to the
wetlands.”

The Senior Environmental Officer with the Environmental Protection Agency in Cape Coast was
also interviewed and it was clear in his response that they do not have any specific regulation

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binding them in relation to the wetland even though the wetlands are an integral part of the
environment. He remarked:

“We don’t have the mandate to protect the wetland since there are no known policy
direction on how to protect the wetland.”

This implies that, stakeholders who are supposed to take care of these wetlands do not have the
appropriate laws mandating them to do their duty and has therefore left the future of these wetlands
at the mercy of encroachers and residents in the communities.

Again during an interview with the Senior Technical Officer at the Department of Town and
Country Planning Division of the Cape Coast Municipal Assembly he remarked:

“We are in charge of the master scheme of the Cape Coast Town and therefore we
zone the areas into commercial and residential. When an area is a wetland as in
the case of Kwaprow and Anlotown, it is noted as such and such lands do not belong
to anyone because they are not to be developed. On the statutory Planning
Committee of the Assembly, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Lands
Commission have representatives there and therefore building permit ought not be
issued to wetlands. But we don’t know what happens and people are already settled
there. When you probe you will realize there are some big men behind influencing
that some have already been given permit.”

This implies that, the assembly has allowed itself to be influence by these so-called big men in the
society and therefore cannot even go to these wetlands to either evacuate them or resettle them
because Assembly has flouted its own laws since day one of issuing permit for building on these
wetlands.

At the end of the findings, it was quite revealing to know that, the wetland could be perceived as
a sacred place for gods. On the other hand it shows the different levels of understanding relative
to the wetlands. This certainly is a guide to how such communities ought to be educated. They also
did not have an idea the role the wetlands play in flood management. Difficulty to control human
activities was explicit in their responses and therefore the communities found it difficult to control
their residents on the wetlands even though the community members know the repercussion of
their activities on the wetland. Subsequently they lack the adequate authority to punish whiles

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others are due to lack of information from the appropriate institutions. In the case that the wetlands
serve the community very well then one would expect that the wetlands are protected. The
communities in their own small way haves managed to role out measures which are meant to
protect the wetlands but is woefully inadequate and therefore frustrating the communities in
dealing with the rampant human activities like residential buildings, sand winning, dumping of
refuse, irrigation and diversion of water from the wetlands. These human activities go a long way
to destroy the wetlands as they indicated. The responsibility of the stakeholders to manage the
wetland has not been the case according to the institutions involve and residents in the community.
Representatives of these institutions, National Disaster Management Organisation, Environmental
Protection Agency, Town and country planning and Lands commission admitted during an
interview and indicated reasons been the unavailability of clear legislation that direct them to
protect the wetland.

CONCLUSION

This study sought to contribute knowledge on the effect of human activities on wetlands and
stakeholder needs for the management of wetlands in Cape Coast, Ghana. The state of the urban
environment in Ghana is undeniably unacceptable. On the one hand, chiefs, landowners and local
government agencies do not coordinate their efforts in spatial planning, and on the other hand,
urban residents are overwhelmed with their own activities on the wetlands. The result is that the
communities do not know that wetlands play a very important role in controlling the frequency of
flood, waste is disposed of in any available “free” space, mostly wetlands in the communities.
Cleanliness may be deemed a virtue. However, this virtue needs to be reinforced and promoted
through conscious efforts by all stakeholders. Whilst residents of Cape Coast may be consciously
interested in maintaining a clean environment, it behooves the responsible stakeholders to provide
the much needed public services to enable residents carry out this civic responsibility. Waste
disposal in wetland areas could therefore be a thing of the past if the appropriate spatial planning
and waste management approaches are implemented.

REFERENCES

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