Planning is a key ingredient in the recipe of social advancement for the Keta district, or any other rural community in Ghana. We can agree that a district without a straightforward vision — and the popular will to execute it — really has no exciting future to look forward to with pride.

Each brutal tidal wave that has hit the Keta district in recent times has been a rude reminder of the need for immediate action, yesterday. The last assault was in November, 2021 when over three thousand residents were rendered homeless.

How does one sleep peacefully if there’s always a chance that a lucid dream would be interrupted by an impromptu flood? How do constituents live if their income-generating livestock are constantly threatened by force majeure?

As terrible as the situation is, we’ve already ceded land to the sea at such a frighteningly swift pace. In fact, the entire pre-independence economy of the Keta constituency has been washed away by the ocean. And if nation-builders fail to take responsibility and manipulate the environment, nature would continue to evade our space.

At this point, there’s no shred of doubt Keta needs an autonomous legal framework and governance system to accelerate its chance of survival. There’s an inherent desire for living room. Today, we have a formidable challenge to reclaim land from the sea. But that’s an argument for the constituency’s next legislator to advance.

While architects, engineers, surveyors, masons and other strategic real estate experts collectively perform a crucial role in fashioning the district, it is the ancient city’s municipal assembly that wields the magic wand of transformation.

Also, historically, as far as coastal management, the Awoemefia has always possessed an immense responsibility to not just understand the gravity of coastal erosion, but to also temper the exuberance of our charged waters. And, equally, the Yewe cult possess institutional wisdom on how best to avoid these periodic disasters.

Hence, the onus is upon the royal institutions, local political leadership, and age-old fraternities to unite the aforementioned professionals under one umbrella, so a radical 21st century ecological plan for the Keta district would see the light of day. Once this blueprint is complete, it would then guide decision-makers determine where and what kind of structures may be appropriately erected.

And of course, in this regard, D K T Djokoto & Co, given its centuries-long royal association with land-use, is immaculately positioned to help the municipal government objectively conceive and craft a long-term policy.

But the international community of diplomatists and philanthropists must, in the spirit of universal brotherhood, be prepared to lend support and put their shoulders to the wheel so we can all drive change here in Keta, Ghana.