Ghana to cooperate with neighbours on trans-boundary water management


Dr Kwaku Agyeman-Mensah, Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing on Thursday said Ghana is committed to cooperating with her neighbouring riparian countries to collectively manage and share the benefits of the Trans-boundary Rivers and aquifers.

Speaking at the opening of a two-day workshop on the establishment of an international governance organization for the Comoe-Bia-Tano Transboundary basis system in Accra, he noted that peace and development in the world depended on the ability to secure the living environment.

He said statistics on the number of water-related events between nations, in terms of conflict related ones and cooperative ones showed that cooperation over water was the more strategically rational, effective and economically viable choice.

Dr. Mensah noted that Ghana’s National Water Policy clearly articulated its direction on transboundary water resources and sought to systematically follow strategic initiatives.

It also seeks to develop and conclude bilateral and multilateral protocols and agreements for the establishment of formal River Basin Organisations where appropriate, between Ghana and other riparian countries.

He stated that the key areas that Ghana focused on to enhance cooperation on trans-boundary management included standardization of data collection and exchange.

He said data and their use, sharing benefits of water resources of shared basins and aquifers such as by extending hydro-power and portable water to co-riparian countries and encouraging water resources planning and development with a shared vision among riparian countries.

The Minister said although Ghana had come a long way in addressing water management issues within the West African sub-region, its efforts had focused almost entirely on the Volta Basin, with the establishment of the Volta Basin Authority in 2007.

He, therefore, called for more focus on the other shared basins including the Tano and Bia basins and some aquifers which Ghana shares with Cote d’Ivoire and Togo.

He commended the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for promoting the establishment of three new international basin organizations including the Comoe-Bia-Tano basin organization.

“We view this initiative as an opportunity that should be carefully nurtured for the benefit of Ghana towards the quest for mutual understanding, peace and economic development with other sharing countries,” he stated.

Mr. Ibrahim B. Wilson, Director of the ECOWAS Water Resources Coordination Centre (WRCC), said although in the past governments did not take issues of water resources seriously as they should have, there had been some transformation recently at the ECOWAS level, and expressed the hope that trend would continue.

He noted that national consultations held in the various countries leading up to this final international workshop showed how seriously water issues were being taken.
He stated that ECOWAS and his outfit were always ready to listen to them on how to push water issues in the sub-region.

Mr. Minta Aboagye, a water sector consultant and chair for the workshop, said the workshop was important as water was at the centre of everything and had been recognized by the soon to be adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a prerequisite to achieving the targets of the SDGs.

He said the establishment of the international organization was necessary as the rivers were too small to be managed individually, adding that it was important to collectively manage them in order to prevent conflicts and to ensure equitable use of the water resources by all the sharing countries.

Mr. Ben Ampomah, Executive Secretary of the Water Resources Commission of Ghana, said process of instituting the transboundary governance body for the Comoe-Bia-Tano basins systems was not an easy task, but one which called for creativity, innovation and commitment and urged participants at the workshop to display these qualities during the workshop.

Participants at the two-day event included representatives from Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali and Togo as well ECOWAS.

SOURCE: GNA