AP PHOTOS: 'We don’t have anywhere to go.' In Ghana, rising seas, powerful waves sweep away homes

AGAVEDZI, Ghana (AP) — Pieces of this coastal Ghana community disappear into the sea when heavy waves batter the shore — sweeping away houses and land, threatening to unearth bodies buried in cemeteries and devastating parts of Agavedzi, where generations of families have built homes and lives.

Rising seas and stronger tidal waves, made worse by climate change, have eroded miles of coastline, chewing inland at an alarming rate, say residents, who have pleaded with government officials for sea barriers.

The latest blows came in recent weeks, with waves destroying another 51 houses and displacing about 300 people in Agavedzi and nearby communities, local officials say.

Here are some of their stories.

Afeli Bernice Adzo, 23.

The waves usually came in the evening, washing against the walls of the home where Afeli Bernice Adzo and her family slept. Sometimes they would subside for a week, sometimes months or years before hitting them again.

Recently, the walls collapsed and the 10-room home owned by her grandparents — where she was born and raised — was left in shambles, partial walls standing in the sands and much of it swept out to sea. They’ve been sleeping in fuel station nearby, knowing they can be kicked out at any time.

“I feel so sad,” said Adzo, adding that the situation affects her mental health, making it difficult to concentrate while at work because she feels “like something terrible will happen to my parents.” Her 9-year-old sister sometimes doesn’t want to go to school. The remains of over 100 people have been exhumed from the cemetery beside the house and reburied elsewhere.

“It was heartbreaking and shocking ... because the distance from where the sea was when I was young, nobody in this area would ever imagine it will get this far,” Adzo said.

Dennis Dostey Dorve, 28.

The sea began to claim houses in Agavedzi about a dozen years ago, said Dennis Dostey Dorve, whose fisherman father built a home that collapsed in 2016 while Dorve was inside.

“The room he had given me is gone, as is the room he occupied before he passed away,” said Dorve. “When I was young, the distance from where I stand now to the shore was considerable.”

The government started building sea defenses in nearby communities, but they never reached Agavedzi. Residents, he said, have done “everything we could to make the government hear our cries and assist us, but we haven’t received any response.”

“It shocks me because I never would have believed, since my birth, that the sea would come to this place.”

Makafui Atayi, 43

At times the waves hit Makafui Atayi’s house so hard that the walls shake, so the family sleeps outside. Some people wander the streets until morning.

Her father’s first house “was utterly destroyed” by tidal waves in 2019, forcing many family members to relocate to the current house, which is over 80 years old and where her father lived for years before he died.

At one time, 25 people lived in what once was a 10-unit home. After the battering in recent weeks, there are two rooms and about 11 people left, Atayi said, adding “We don’t have anywhere to go.”

Atayi also owns a hair salon in a building that’s on the verge of collapse. When that happens, she will be out of business.

Atsu Godslove Afeli, 52

The destruction of Atsu Godslove Afeli’s home began gradually. But a month ago, the last of the building collapsed, leaving him, his four children and his brother with nowhere to sleep but a fuel station behind their destroyed home.

Afeli said he never thought it could happen because “the distance from our house to the seashore was very long and it (was) hard to believe that the sea could reach this place.” In recent months, however, he became sad, depressed and frustrated as the waves got closer and finally toppled his home.

“I hope we can obtain sea defenses so we can reclaim our land,” he said. “We need help to start our lives over again.”

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Associated Press reporter Tammy Webber contributed to this story.

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