Popular images of sea level change are flooded houses, displaced people and eroded landscapes. In Western Ghana, a sinister new picture is emerging: salt water poisoning. Rising sea levels have polluted the water sources of thousands of inhabitants, infecting their drinking water and creating an unprecedented rise in salt-related health problems.
The head of water quality at the Ghana Water Company has admitted providing drinking water with almost twice the recommended salt levels, whilst the medical director of the regional hospital has reported a 70% increase in strokes, hypertension and heart problems.
Largely ignored in the Ghanaian press, this is a candid portrait of environmental abuse and political mismanagement set to mushroom if current climatic trends continue.
