Aby Lagoon

Aby Lagoon forms a broad, shallow water landscape across the border of southeastern Ivory Coast and southwestern Ghana. It is a choked coastal lagoon, meaning that sandbars and a narrow Atlantic outlet restrict the exchange of water with the sea. The complex consists of three connected sections: Aby Lagoon proper in the west, Tendo Lagoon in the centre, and Ehy Lagoon in the east. The largest section covers about 305 square kilometres and stretches roughly 24.5 kilometres north from the mouth of the complex. Its shallow basin is turbulent when winds stir the water, and its salinity changes according to rainfall, river discharge, and the state of the narrow sea opening. The Bia River feeds the western section from the north, while the Tano River enters Tendo Lagoon from the east.

The lagoon system gives the border region a shared environment of channels, floodplains, swamp forest, and coastal sand barriers. Fishing and agriculture are the principal activities around its shores. Local communities occupy small settlements linked by boats and paths, moving between fields, fishing grounds, and markets rather than treating the lagoon as a boundary.

In Bono tradition, the source of the Tano River is associated with Ta Kora, a powerful deity of war and lightning personified by the river. That sacred geography extends the importance of the waterway beyond transport and food: the river connects a distant inland origin with the coastal lagoons and the Atlantic. Seasonal rains, rivers, forests and floods determine both the ecology of the lagoons and the livelihoods of the people who fish and farm beside them.