Students exchange workshop and seminar on the Ghana Volta Delta

The DIMI in collaboration with the Delta Alliance organized a Volta Delta students exchange and workshop program at Delft University May 2018. 

This visit to the Netherlands stems from a cooperation between the Delta Alliance, the Delft Deltas, infrastructures & Mobility Initiative (DIMI) and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology (KNUST), Central University (CU), CSIR College of Science & Technology (CCST), and University of Ghana (UG), aiming to develop integrated solutions for the complex challenges of the Volta Delta in Ghana. During a full week of workshops and site visits in October 2017, hosted and facilitated by the Delta Alliance-Ghana Wing, the Dutch and Ghanaian students worked alongside to develop integrated solutions for the challenges of the Volta Delta. The students continued working on the challenges within their individual MSc projects both at TU Delft and Ghanaian universities.

To share and integrate their findings a follow-up meeting was held in Delft in May 14- 18. During this week the students and teachers engaged in a seminar, workshop and a fieldtrip to the Dutch Delta.  The Dutch –Ghanaian student teams presented their findings on integrated solutions and designs to a delegation of Ghanaian government officials during a seminar at Delft University who visited the Netherlands on invitation of the Netherlands Embassy and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO).

The student’s work showed that the Volta Delta suffers from severe coastal erosion due to a lack of sediment and sea level rise, which is conflicting with the extensive urban and economic development in the delta. Integrated land use planning and the development of guiding principles for urban and economic development is key to ensure a sustainable future for Ghana’s delta.