Keta

Keta is a coastal town in the Ghanaian Coastal Plain. The town sits on a sandbar of land that separates the Keta Lagoon from the Gulf of Guinea.

Understand
It is the capital of the Keta Municipal District. Keta had a population of 23,000 in 2013. Parts of the town were devastated by sea erosion between the 1960s and 1980s.

In the Ewe language, "Ke:ta" means "head of the sand".

Keta Lagoon
This 126-km-long lagoon is a body of open salty water, surrounded by flood plains and mangrove swamps. There are seasonal inflow of sea water during high tide from the Gulf of Guinea and regular inflow of rivers. Population growth, extensive human activities and climate change have contributed to reduce the volume of water in the lagoon which appears to be drying up.

The lagoon is important in conserving several species of mangroves, crabs, shrimps and raffia plants. The Keta lagoon is the most important wetland on the Ghana coast for waterbirds. With Songor Lagoon, it constitutes the fourth most important waterbirds site on the Gulf of Guinea coast. The site supports 76 waterbird species with an estimated total population of well over 100,000, including globally significant numbers of 21 species.

The Keta Lagoon is on the list of Wetlands of International Importance of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. In 1999 work began on measures to limit further erosion and to control flooding of the coastal region.