Into the Volta: How Yvette Tetteh Challenged Ghana’s Textile Waste Crisis With a Swimming Expedition

The Volta River is Ghana’s longest river (1,599 kilometers). Daunting for anyone to take a long-distance swim, it would become a conduit for Yvette Tetteh to send across the pertinent message about water pollution — particularly, from textile waste. An agribusiness entrepreneur, athlete, and activist, Tetteh’s environmental campaign wasn’t fixated on the Volta River only, but extended towards looking into the quality of different water bodies across Ghana.

Her exploits in the water began when she was just four years old. “When I was young, swimming was always a large part of the school experience,” Tetteh told OkayAfrica. “Children’s parties were always at the pool so I have just sort of had a lot of interaction with the water.”

Now she’s using swimming for a just cause. Into the Volta River, Tetteh swam over a distance of 450km, from Buipe to Ada. She finished the expedition on May 18, her triumph resonating with local communities affected by the scourge of landfills. But the origins of Tetteh’s well-meaning crusade involved other moving parts, other entities that shared the same drive as her.

Yvette Tetteh swimming after midday and being tailed closely by the Or Foundation team.Photo by Ofoe Amegavie / Agbetsi Living Water Expedition / The Or Foundation.

How it all began

In 2022, Tetteh joined the Or Foundation as a board member to support their work in environmental justice and combating waste colonialism. To show their commitment to stopping textile waste along the shores of Ghana, the non-governmental organization decided to take gallant action.

“I went to specific sites sites in Accra affected by excessive textile waste and these places included Old Fadama and the Korle Lagoon,” Tetteh said. “And seeing these places for the first time, I was really alarmed and I knew working with the Or Foundation is something I needed to do.”

The expedition was decided over dinner Tetteh had with the founders, Liz Ricketts and Branson Skinner. “Together, we thought it would be interesting to do an expedition of some sort and also expand the water research, and for me, I thought this is great because I have always wanted to explore Ghana and share Ghana with other people,” Tetteh said. “ I was really passionate about the science and making sure that we are able to keep building an understanding around second-hand clothing and how it flows into Ghana and what it does.”

While Tetteh would swim the Volta River, their science team would collect water and air samples to research the extent of the damage the pollution has caused. This birthed the Agbetsi Living Water Expedition, the first research of its kind in Ghana.

The science team of the Or Foundation labeling water samples collected from the Volta River.Photo by Ofoe Amegavie / Agbetsi Living Water Expedition / The Or Foundation.

How the Swimming Expedition Panned Out

The expedition began on the 10th of March 2023. Prior to that, the team gathered and transported the science equipment from Accra to their designated start point of the Volta River, Buipe, a town in the Northern Region of Ghana. The boat used for this expedition is called The Woman Who Does Not Fear.

It’s the first of its kind built in Ghana. It is an aluminum solar-powered boat built in Tema, a major city in Accra known for its ports and harbor. The boat, otherwise called the research vessel, housed the science laboratory where samples of water and air were collected while Yvette swam an average of four to six hours along the Volta River.

The crew on the boat would go on to spend three months on it. Members of the town along the river were engaged by the crew, with most of the townsfolk talking about rising water levels and associated land loss. Swimmers who were moved by the campaign action joined Tetteh swim for a few kilometers as a sign of their support towards the cause.

Under the leadership of Captain JayJay Addo-Koranteng, the expedition began.

“So for our daily routines, in the morning, we prep to get ready for the day’s research work. Yvette will prep for her meals, the captain will prep meals for the crew and the science team will prep the equipment for the day,” Edwin, Communications Manager for the Or Foundation, told OkayAfrica. “For the swim, we had to help Yvette time her daily rounds in the water. So myself and Amegavie, the documentarian, took turns kayaking with her. We had our timers on to alert her when she hits her average time.”

Tetteh swam three times a day. In the morning, afternoon, and dusk. Swimming 450km proved to be a daunting task for Tetteh mainly due to the currents and winds working against her.

“I spent a long time in the water and I was under the impression I would swim long distances, that I would have the support of the current flowing southwards. However, most of the river is not like that at all. Most of the river is the lake… and It doesn’t flow the same way as a narrow river,” Tetteh said. “For the lake portion of the river, I was really having to fight… really having to make a lot of effort to move forward.”

The expedition ended after she completed the final leg of the swim from Akosombo to Ada-Foah on Thursday, May 18. She was welcomed by the chiefs, community leaders, and the jubilant youth of Ada by a grand durbar for her valiant efforts.

“There definitely were many days I felt demoralized and extremely tired but I was very committed to completing the task," Tetteh said. “ I was very sensible with my swim schedule but it was tough.”

Yvette Tetteh doing a morning stretch before a swim.Photo by Ofoe Amegavie / Agbetsi Living Water Expedition / The Or Foundation.

The Bigger Picture of the Swimming Expedition

Tetteh’s swimming expedition is part of a push to combat textile waste in our water bodies. #StopWasteColonialism was coined by the Or Foundation to hold textile companies in the Global North accountable for the damage that their second-hand clothing is causing to the Ghanaian environment.

The Kantamanto market situated in Accra, Ghana, is set to be the largest second-hand clothing market in the world. Over 15 million clothes are dumped here, and about 40 percent of the bale are burnt in different landfills across the country and some are dumped into the ocean and other major water bodies.

Clothing brands found along the coastlines of Accra according to the Or’s research included Adidas, H&M, Nike, Nexts, Marks and Spencer, Gildan, Fruit of the Loom, George, and Primark. This textile waste is posing a serious health crisis and costing the livelihoods of the citizens of Ghana with water bodies and air being a major catalyst for this.

As a result, the Or Foundation is looking for 10,000 petitions signed to get nations and major fashion companies to commit to the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). Most of these bales of clothes come from North America, Europe, and parts of Asia with no funds to manage the waste these clothes produce in these vulnerable communities.

Yvette Tetteh leaps off "The Woman Who Does Not Fear" into the Volta River.Photo by Ofoe Amegavie / Agbetsi Living Water Expedition / The Or Foundation.

This environmental policy states that for every garment produced, an amount of money should be allocated to receivers of these clothes when or if they become second-hand clothing. The Kantamanto market is top on the list. Should the EPR policy be well-implemented, the funds will be used for upcycling and recycling waste materials which would reduce the textile waste where water and in the air subsequently.

It’s mainly calling on countries, industry players, and policymakers to pay for waste, not only in their country but for countries where these textile waste products are disposed of.

The research is still ongoing and a report according to the Or Foundation will be released in a few month's time.

And what about Yvette and her new level of fame?

“I’m not planning on writing any memoir about the expedition,” Yvette said. “But the Or Foundation plans to release a documentary on it but we don’t have a definite timeline set.”

Yvette Tetteh standing at the shores of the Volta River.Photo by Ofoe Amegavie / Agbetsi Living Water Expedition / The Or Foundation.