The Coastal Development Authority (CODA) has invested in 1,473 infrastructural projects to improve living conditions in coastal areas out of which 129 have been completed. On the average, the remaining projects are between 50 and 70 percent completed.
The completed projects include school buildings, drains, markets, bridges, and health facilities.
Chief Executive Officer of CODA, Lawyer Jerry Ahmed Shaib pointed out that through those projects the government was fulfilling its “1 million dollars per Constituency” policy, he said at a press event, dubbed “Our story so far”.
According to the CEO, CODA had also procured and distributed over 3,000 subsidised outboard motors to fisherfolk; cutlasses, wellington boots, and spraying guns to peasant farmers to equip them with basic and essential implements.
Lawyer Shaib said that the Authority had also provided free health screening, medication, and surgeries for some communities and individuals in the 109 constituencies under CODA, and sponsored free health insurance cards for others.
He said CODA was also undertaking the CODA Clean Beach Campaign” to improve the environmental and ecological conditions along the beachfront in the country by mobilizing coastal communities in environmental cleanliness and providing basic infrastructure and facilities to maintain clean beaches.
“We are doing this in partnership with the Coastal Conservancy Organisation (CCO), a local NGO, and the Center for Coastal Management, University of Cape Coast. We are also working with the Kantanka Group and they have worked on something they call the shredders that will shred all the plastics. We are hopeful that if we get them to agree on something, we should be able to have shredders all over the place and all these plastics that we see can be shredded into reusable materials,” he stated.
He charged all Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives within the Coastal Development Zone to support the campaign, and appealed to the media to aid in educating the public to keep the beaches clean.
Beach Stadia
Touching on the outlook for the year 2022 and beyond, Lawyer Shaib said the Authority had plans to set up four beach stadia at Keta in the Volta Region, Laboma in the Greater Accra Region, Komenda in the Central Region, and Ellembelle in the Western Region.
Beach Stadia, he noted, was among the finest sports arenas in the world now, and that such facilities would boost the tourism industry and maintain clean beaches in the country. Beach stadia are among “the finest in the sports fraternity, and if we are able to harness all the resources for that, we are going to have a lot of foreigners coming into the country,” he said.
The Coastal Development Zone comprises the Greater Accra, Volta, Western, Central, Oti, and Western North Regions.
