Thirty-five percent of Ghana is in the desert

The Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA) has revealed that 49 out of the 138 districts in Ghana are in the desert. This means about 35 percent of Ghana’s landmass is desert, while desertification is dangerously creeping at an estimated 20,000 hectares per year, with the attendant destruction of farmlands.

Already some environmental experts have warned that the current low level of water in the Akosombo Dam is due to desertification, which has affected the tributaries of the dam in northern parts of the country.

The Programme Officer of the EPA, Mr. Emmanuel Arthur revealed this when he presented a paper at a roundtable debate in Accra on climate change, dubbed, “Climate Change in Ghana – Widening the Debate.”

Climate change is referred to as the long-term fluctuation in precipitation, temperature, wind and all other aspects of the earth’s climate. The debate was organised by the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development, (CDD) and the British High Commission in Ghana.

Mr. Arthur cited increasing air temperature, heat waves, sea level rise, drought and storms as some of the climatic happenings in Ghana, stating that these have effects on water resources, agriculture, health, desertification and coastal zone settlements.

Explaining climate change on Ghana’s water resources, he said there will be a reduction in freshwater flows between 15-20% for the year 2020 and 30-40% for year 2050 in all the basins. “Irrigation water demand was to increase to about 40% and 150% for 2020 and 2050 due to climate change respectively and 5% and 17% without climate change.

Hydropower generation is seriously being affected by climate change leading to about 60% reduction in available water in all basins by 2020, this crisis currently being experienced nationwide.”

The Programme Officer noted that both water quality and quantity are depreciating over time and this is causing scarcity worldwide.
On agriculture, he revealed that a vulnerability and assessment done for maize, millet, rice and sorghum projected that the yield of maize, which is a main staple crop in Ghana would decrease to 6.9% by 2020.
However, he said the yield of millet would not be affected by climate change since it is more drought-tolerant but insensitive to temperature rise.

Mr. Arthur said Ghana as a developing country can only reduce her vulnerability to the impact of climate change by managing her natural resources and population in a sustainable manner.

He emphasised that Ghana should meet the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs and warned that Ghana’s rapid population growth of 2% is putting pressure on food and water resources, and other vulnerable natural resources.

“Our economic activities in the formal and informal sectors of Ghana are highly dependent on natural resources such as agriculture, fishing and mining. Poverty is worsened when resources are depleted.”

He recommended the wise use and conservation of water resources. “We must actively manage water resources to ensure the sustainable development of the resource as well as manage the country’s rapidly growing population to slow down adverse impacts of human activities on natural resources.”

Participants at the roundtable discussion agreed that climate change poses a challenge to democratic sustenance since the overall objective of democratic governance is to secure equitable development or society.

Mr. Chris Brealey, Second Secretary on Global Issues at the British High Commission, noted that climate change was the biggest challenge facing the world, with 75% of greenhouse emission from developed world and Africa already vulnerable to it.

For that reason, he said the Department for International Development, (DFID) is funding a climate assessment programme for Ghana. However, he said Africa has the potential to benefit from a reformed clean energy / carbon dioxide.

Speaking on environmental governance, Mr. Kojo Pumpuni Asante, Research Officer – Governance and Legal Policy at the CDD regretted that there is rapid urbanisation in Ghana whereas there is no infrastructure to support it, leading to homelessness and high crime as there are no jobs in urban centres.

He suggested the need for government to build the capacities of frontline agencies such the EPA and the Forestry Commission to promote sustainability as it generates revenue.

“There is need for policy issue on climate change because its impacts are broad and undermine all efforts by governments towards economic development.”