Validation workshop on Black Volta Ecosystem Basin held

Green WaterHut, an environmental sustainability non-governmental organisation (NGO) has organised a day’s stakeholder validation workshop to validate the findings of a baseline study/survey data and landscape management strategy document on the Black Volta Ecosystem Basin.

It was sponsored by the Global Environmental Facility Small Grants Programme (SGP) under the United Nations Development Programme through its initiated 6th Operational Phase (OP6) which is being implemented from 2015 to 2018.

The objective of the OP6 Programme is “to support the creation of global environmental benefits and the safeguarding of the global environment through community and local solutions that complement and add value to national and global level action”.

Ghana has selected the Landscape Approach among SGP’s Strategic Initiative for OP6 and has therefore conducted a baseline study/survey in the Black Volta Ecosystem Basin, which was undertaken by Green WaterHut, a Sunyani-based Ghanaian NGO.

Dr Amos T. Kabo-bah, Lecturer, Department of Energy and Environmental Engineering at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) was the lead Consultant for the study, with Dr Mrs Mercy Derkyi and Dr Mark Amo-Boateng, also of UENR as other consultants.

Thirty-five participants from communities that are located within the Black Volta Ecosystem Basin in the Jaman North, Banda and Tain Districts in the Brong-Ahafo Region and Bole-Bamboi District in the Northern Region attended the workshop.

They included farmers, Fire and Police Service personnel, Development Planners, members of community-based organisations (CBOs), Assembly members, District Planning Officers, staff of National Disaster Management Organisation and representatives of NGOs as well as Researchers from UENR and the media in Sunyani.

It was a follow up of two separate baseline workshops held at Sampa in the Jaman North and Bole in the Bole-Bamboi Districts that developed the documents for the validation workshop.

Addressing the workshop in Sunyani, Dr James Adomako, National Steering Committee (NSC) Chair of the SGP, Ghana announced that the SGP is going to start a new OP6, and most of its funding would be concentrated on one geographical area.

Dr Adomako who is also Dean of Students at the University of Ghana explained that the Black Volta Ecosystem Basin has therefore been selected because of the changes that are happening in that environment as a result of the construction of the Bui dam and the resultant creation of the Black Volta Lake and its consequences.

He implied that the negative impact emanating from the environmental changes on the people in communities within the basin would be mitigated, using the NGOs and CBOs to implement all necessary interventions outlined by the OP6 programme.

Dr Adomako urged concerned NGOs and CBOs to be proactive to merit selection by way of writing and submitting pragmatic proposals.

Mr George Ortsin, the GEF and SGP Coordinator in Ghana gave an overview of the Project- Strategic Outlook for Black Volta Basin, while Dr Kabo-bah also in another slide presentation educated participants on the outcome of the baseline workshops.