Government is currently exploring ways to make potable water highly accessible to Ghanaians. Precisely, it is seeking technology that can remove salt from sea water and make it potable.
A company is setting up a plant around Teshie, in Accra around the coast on pilot basis that would eventually provide Ghana with the cost of doing that. "Fresh water is diminishing in quantity.
We have to look at what science and technology can remove salt from sea water and make it potable," stated Mr. Minta Aboagye, Director of Water at the Ministry of Works and Housing and Water Resources.
Mr. Aboagye spoke to journalists during a National Workshop on Water Rights in Informal Economies in Accra.
It was under the auspices of the Water Resources Commission (WRC), the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) " a research initiative with a goal to increase the productivity of water used for agriculture, leaving more water for other users and the environment.
He explained that Ghana is not the first country to explore the above possibility and that it is being used worldwide.
He noted that sea water is available and knowing that fresh water is scarce and diminishing in quantity, it is appropriate to search for other means to transform the abundant to get potable water supply.
Mr. Aboagye said that water delivery is currently undermined by certain factors such as population growth, particularly in the national capital Accra, therefore water is intercepted at various points, thus reducing supply to homes.
He announced programmes by government to renew and extend existing networks/ pipelines to ensure that water is treated, pumped and carried to homes.
Giving an overview of the legal framework of water rights in Ghana, the Acting Executive Director of WRC, Mr. Ben Ampomah said colonial rule witnessed the introduction of two water related legislations.
He said they administered the British common law legal system i.e. the principle of riparian owner of water resources-land owners had riparian rights and the community also had communal rights to water.
He said Ghana put in water laws adequately after independence, relating to its control, abstraction, diversion and damming.
However, overlaps and conflicts among the state institutions over their responsibilities saw the Water Resources Commission set up under WRC Act 522 of 1996.
According to Mr. Ampomah water resources are now vested in the President for and on behalf of the people of Ghana, through the WRC to ensure that those who use the water do so well.
He explained further that the objective of the workshop was to share experiences from Ghana, South Africa and Mozambique on how government can promote numbers and volumes of informal and formal water use and users according to legal categories.
"Two regulations have so far been passed; Water Use Regulations, 2001, Legislative Instrument (LI) 1692; and Drilling Licence and Groundwater Development Regulations, 2006 (L.I. 1827). It sets out regulations for the issuance of water use permits or grant of water rights for various water uses including: domestic, commercial, industrial, agricultural, power generation, fisheries (aquaculture), recreational, and under water (wood) harvesting".
He said the WRC has developed its own internal structures to carry out procedures for the grant of water rights and recognizes the need to bring up elements of customary law and tradition that will assist in the better management of Ghana's water resources.
"The involvement of traditional authorities (have position/ representation from the national to the basin level) and community is key to realizing the purpose of the State system - public hearings, etc. to influence water rights decisions."
Dr. Barbara van Koppen, Principal Researcher at IWMI stressed that there are enormous potential for women to enhance their productivity if government and civil society can ensure that women also get access to water resources.
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