Based on current policies, the IPCC estimates that the global warming will reach 3.2°C by 2100. Fact. And, the manifestation of climate change in all its candor.

We are to focus here, by July, on the detailed causes and consequences of climate change faced today. We can’t omit therefore as illustration the race against time for coastal villages threatened by erosion in Togo, my country.

My country Togo is bordered to the south by the Atlantic Ocean. As announced above, let's take it as a case study. A study by the West African Coastal Observation Mission (in French, MOLOA) carried out in 2015, established that the sea advances by 1.8 to 5 meters per year. It advances, swallowing up certain infrastructures (roads and houses) in the process.

The construction of certain dams and the port of Lomé appear to be the main causes of this scourge. Since the construction of the Akosombo hydroelectric complex, in Ghana (west of Togo), and that of the Autonomous Port of Lomé (PAL) in 1963, more than 500 linear m of land have been swallowed up by the sea in the agglomeration, including a number of fishing villages, roads and infrastructure, we learn in this same

The main effort to counteract today consists to build groynes to protect the coastline; but this solution is not unanimous. Kossi Agbavi, a village located more than 30 km from Lomé, the capital, is one of the most affected villages. Here, the advance of the sea is real. As a result, the locality risks being completely wiped off the map within the next fifteen years, if no effective protection action is taken.

These forecasts indicate a rise in sea level between 0.10 and 0.17 m by 2025, 0.19 and 0.34 m by 2050, 0.29 and 0.55 m by horizon 2075 and 0.33 and 0.75 m by 2100.

Other effective and conceivable processes can be: the method of refloating pits instead of building groynes to stabilize the coast, refill the beaches which means that it is necessary to fetch sand from the high seas and come and do compensation. Furthermore, in an approach of seriousness and involvement of public action, having an Integrated Coastal and Environmental Management Center (in frnch, CGILE) in Lomé is an important notable achievement.

Thank you.

Written by Richard Adayi

Resources

[1] NASA : https://climate.nasa.gov/