A landmark cultural exhibition and grand durbar by the chiefs and people of Ada last Saturday climaxed 70 years of the restoration of Asafotufiami. The joy of the occasion was, however, undermined with the warning that Ada could lose up to 16 towns and villages in the next 10 years if nothing was done to check the wrath of the sea. With one of the largest crowds in the festival's history, turning up to witness Ada culture, dance and militancy, speaker after speaker drew attention to the rampant sea erosion and the scary ecological picture confronting the largest paramountcy in the Greater Accra Region. The Paramount Chief of the area, Nene Abram Kabu Akuaku III, was the first to raise the issue in his welcoming address and pleaded that if a sea defence project on the scale of the one at Keta was unattainable in the short term, Ada could do with a temporary one like the type used to reclaim the land at the Sakumono beach. Other speakers, including Members of Parliament, Messrs Alex Tettey Enyo and N.A.G. Abayateye, the chairman for the function, Dr Benjamin Baako and the Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Mr Sammy Crabbe, in various messages of solidarity, all touched on the ravages of the area. The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Sheikh I.C Quaye, who last year dwelt on solutions to the erosion, including a DANIDA sponsored feasibility, was this time represented by the ace commentator, Joe Lartey, whose speech this time dwelt on peace and unity. He lauded the people of Ada for maintaining peace in the traditional area. Dr Baako felt nostalgic about Otrokpe, the village in which he was born decades ago, which has long disappeared many kilometres into the sea. And still some few kilometres away from the venue of the rhetorics, the sea was claiming its latest victims in Lolonyakope, Kpodzi and Ayigbo, all in Ada Foah, where residents were busy packing out their personal effects to escape the pounding sea. It is estimated that over the last few years, Ada has lost 12 out of its 147 towns and villages to the sea. Among them are some of the most compelling destinations for tourists and botanists such as the Midas Groove, Sea View Cottage and Hushie¬Hushie, all at the Azizanya Beach, Ada Foah. Also buried in the sea of Azizanya are the old post office, the police station, a colonial fort that served as a prison and the Ada Foah Presbyterian primary school. Source: Daily Graphic