Article published in Environmental Guide News | Daily | 5 December 2023
A Research Scientist, with the CSIR-Water Research Institute, Dr.Prosper Bazaanah has stated that, Ghana is not a country that lacks water but rather, the challenge has to do with human activities which is affecting the quality of the country’s water, posing a lot of risk to the people when they consume it.
Dr. Bazaanah works with the surface water and climate change Division of the CSIR – Water Research Institute.
“So what can we do as a people?”What we can do is that, we need to ensure that we are responsible people and responsible citizens. Do not throw waste indiscriminately knowing that it would end in the water bodies. Our people are engaged in illegal mining, galamsey to be specific. The chemicals that are emerging from these activities are having effect on our water bodies not just our health but also the animals that are in the water like our fishes and when we consume them they cause problems for us”.
He made this known at a Seminar under the theme: Ghana’s Water Security: Rethinking the Value of Water held in Accra. The Seminar was the third of a three part seminar series, CSIR- Water Research Institute held prior to their Open Day event. In the first seminar series, the availability of both ground and surface water were addressed, including the quality and quantity of these water resources for domestic, industrial and agricultural usage.
The second seminar series organized, was centered on protecting the quality of water and controlling water pollution. Some health implications due to the consumption of polluted waters especially due to human activities were discussed.
The third seminar was focused on improving water governance for the socio-economic benefits of Ghana.
These three seminars were a forerunner to the main open day event which is scheduled to take place next week Tuesday on the 28th to 29th of November, 2023.
Dr. Bazaanah said the coming event would witnessed industry players coming to the Institute to see for themselves, the kind of technologies, services and products they have developed so far, and work done in the area of improving water quality. Dr. Bazaanah revealed that, some key lessons that emerged from the 3 series of seminars all pointed to the fact that, Ghana does not lack water resources and that, it has an abundance of water resources. However, the only challenge has to do with the quality and management of these water resources.
So the question that we ought to ask ourselves is, what are the things that affect the quality of water resources such that even now, we are having a difficulty in getting portable water in its quality state in our homes? The main thing has to do with human activities. The activities of illegal mining, the activities of pollution, the activities of domestic waste which are being carried away into our water bodies when it rains that is causing problems for treatment of water by responsible institutions like Ghana Water Company Limited”.
He pointed out that, a research carried out shows that, a lot of the problems that citizens are facing in terms of kidney failure, deformed babies, etc are all pointing to the fact that the water that is being consumed are all polluted, and are full of heavy chemicals causing harm to humans.
Dr. Prosper Bazaanah therefore called for the need to minimize negative activities against water resources so that people can preserve, conserve and be able to keep it at home and treat them better to secure good health.
He further entreated regulatory agencies in the country to work together to ensure that, they minimize and regulate activities that are happening on the water bodies to avoid pollution which in the long run has a dire effect on us.
He said, “We are entreating all institutions especially the private sector to join in this worthy course. Water is life and if people don’t have it, you can imagine what would happen. For that reason, we are entreating private participation in terms of financing, in terms of helping with research and in terms of carrying out some of the research outcomes discovered and help to implement them on the ground so that, people’s lives can be better and be preserved”.
The Director,CSIR-WRI, Prof. Mike Yaw Osei-Atweneboana on his part, called for political and individual support to ensure the security of water bodies, re-think the way people do things, concerning the value placed on water and not the value people place on what they can benefit from the water, but how the water being used is giving people the benefits. “We need to maintain the integrity of these water bodies as we came to meet it so that the generation to come would also equally get the same benefit we are getting from the water exactly as we came to meet them”. He charged Ghanaians to remember that, water is life and once it is out of your system, then you are completely in trouble saying, everybody in the country needs water and that on the average, each one uses about 50 liters of water a day.
Mr. Ben Ampomah, Former Executive Secretary, Water Resources Commission mentioned that there are issues in respect to the environment not only the physical environment but also, the regulatory environment, the policy environment, and the Institutional environment. He stressed that, there are some key things that need to be focused on mentioning coordination and collaboration among the institutions especially, the regulatory institutions in terms of the natural resources.
The other point he raised has to do with an enforcement saying, it is only an enforcement of the laws that can make people do the right thing.
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