The Water Resources Commission (WRC) has called for an attitudinal change to help protect Ghana’s water bodies.
According to the commission, this will boost the availability of treated water for domestic and commercial use, especially in the northern parts of the country.
In an interview on World Water Day, March 22, 2023, the Director of Planning at the Commission, Dr Bob Alfa, said human activities such as sand winning, rampant felling of trees and illegal mining are affecting the constant supply of water in the country.
Mr Alfa added that this is reversing the commission’s gains in providing potable water for Ghanaians.
“We pollute water by undertaking sand winning; therefore, even if the water is there, it is not treatable. If you abstract 10 gallons of water not polluted, you can get eight gallons as treated water, but if the water is heavily polluted, you can get four gallons as treated water, so that is a reduction in the availability of water,” he explained. “So we must engage the people to change their attitudes”.
Meanwhile, he said the commission, through its integrated water resources management programme, is taking steps to educate the citizenry on the need to protect water bodies.
He said this had led the commission to embark on awareness tours in basic and second-cycle schools across the country “to instil sustainable behaviours” in the people.
“The goal is to ensure everybody has water, and how do we ensure that? It depends on changing the attitudes of the people while we also put measures in place because it doesn’t matter what you do. If you don’t change the attitudes of the people, you’ll reverse the gains that you’ll make, so you look at it in a double approach,” he said in an interview on Class FM, monitored by The Ghana Report.
This year’s World Water Day celebration is on the theme: ‘Accelerating Change To Solve The Water & Sanitation Crisis.’
This comes at a time when Ghana is battling with the heavy pollution of many of its water bodies by the activities of illegal miners.
The pollution of Rive Pra, Ankobra and others, which are the main water sources for many parts of the country, has caused water shortages.
The Ghana Water Company Limited(GWCL) has blamed the current water rationing in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis on the low level of the Pra River due to illegal mining.
To mitigate the effects of the dwindling water supply, the Water Resource Commission has embarked on tree-planting exercises in some parts of Ghana.
“We also invest in studies to know if we can have groundwater, so a lot of drilling is going on so that communities can rely on groundwater,” Mr Alfa said.
Meanwhile, Dr Henry Ofosu Addo, an Environmental Parasitologist and a researcher, has predicted that Ghana might import water in some years ahead if conscious efforts are not made to stop illegal mining and protect the country’s water sources.
