New Ministry for Water advocated

Nana Dwomoh Sarpong, President of the Friends of Rivers and Water bodies, a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) on Tuesday advocated a separate Ministry for Water to give priority attention to integrated water management.

He said although water management was under the Ministry of Works and Housing, it was not getting the needed focus because it was not the core concern of the sector.

Nana Sarpong, who participated in a two-day conference of the Global Water Partnership (GWP) in Accra that attracted over 250 stakeholders in integrated water resources management, was speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview. He said water was gradually becoming a scarce commodity in the country and yet there was no effective management to check its continuous misuse.

Nana Sarpong said farming on the banks of water bodies was one of the major causes for their silting up yet regulations on creating buffer zones to protect them were not being enforced.

He appealed to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to encourage irrigation and other alternative farming that discouraged farming along water banks. Mr Jonathan Nii Ahele Nunoo, Acting Managing Director of the Ghana Water Company Limited, also told the GNA that the water crisis being experienced in Africa was the by-product of political instability and mismanagement hence the need for the political will to reverse the situation.

He said most governments neglected water management for a long time leading to the break down of water systems and low tariffs paid by consumers for water supply. Mr Nunoo called on the District Assemblies to be proactive in checking environmental degradation that had been the bane of efficient water supply.

He expressed optimism that the choice of Accra as the venue for the GWP conference, the subsequent World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa and a Water forum in Japan would boost investor confidence in the water sector.