Volta Delta Coast

The Volta Delta is one of West Africa's largest and most fragile coastal landforms: a low-lying barrier spit built by sediment from the Volta River, now actively eroding due to the reduced sediment supply since the Akosombo Dam closure in 1965. Keta sits on the narrowest part of this spit, with the ocean on one side and the Keta Lagoon — a Ramsar-listed wetland — on the other, the land width measured in hundreds of metres in places. Tidal range is Gulf of Guinea microtidal: spring range 1.0 to 1.4 m. The Keta Lagoon supports important waterbird populations and artisanal fisheries; canoe routes through the lagoon channels depend on tidal state for passage through shallow bars. Fort Prinzenstein, a Dutch slave fort standing at the eastern end of Keta, now sits nearly in the surf zone — a stark physical marker of how much land the sea has claimed since the 18th century. Open-Meteo Marine gridded model, accuracy class ±45 min / ±0.2–0.3 m.