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23rd March, 2010
World Water Day At Kpong
Ghana yesterday observed this year’s World Water Day here under the theme: “Clean Water for a healthy world!
The day was to highlight the relationship between clean water and increased productivity and to raise awareness of clean water which is critical to quality health among others.
In a speech read on his behalf, Mr Alban S. Bagbin, the Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing said that access to safe drinking water was one of the most pressing critical need facing mankind.
“Of the more than one billion people around the world who have little or no access to improved water and the hundreds of millions whose access is only to minimally improved but potable water, the vast majority live in rural communities in developing countries” he told the gathering.
Two million people said die globally each year from water bone disease and most of them were children
According to Mr Bagbin, in spite of the heightened concerns and initiatives by local and international institutions, it had been extremely difficult to implement viable solutions that were sustainable over long periods.
As a result, the minister said that billions of people were locked up in a cycle of poverty and disease.
He said that the global Decade 2005-2015 action programme must intensify advocacy efforts and actions to integrate the management of water resources which was being pursued by the Water Resources Commission (WRC).
“Integrated water resources management is crucial to the success or failure of the MDG’s as water is central to the livelihood of the poor and vulnerable health, good sanitation and irrigated agriculture” Mr Bagbin stressed.
The Decade, he again stated was a unique occasion to bring all stakeholders to apply solutions to the variety of problems on water.
The Managing Director of AcquaVitens Rand, Mr Martin Njisse on behalf of his company and the GWC said that, increasing water quality globally was one biggest challenge that had confronted all countries.
In Ghana, he said that lack of adequate monitoring and the enforcement of relevant laws had resulted in unfettered encroachment and degradation of water bodies.
“We are all aware that heavy pollution of water bodies has become major environmental problem in and around Tarkwa. It is common knowledge that surfacing mining, has left in its trail, pollution of rivers and streams through deposits of tailings and waste rocks and leachate of cyanide,” he told the gathering.
Mr Njisse said that, the picture in other parts of the country was also gloomy and reported that there was the heavy pollution around the Weije Lake in Accra and the Owabi Lake in Kumasi.
“What is even worrying is that unscientific fishing and farming in the catchment zones has resulted in increase in weed growth, creation of algal bloom and deterioration in water quality,” he added.
He said that poor quality of water had increased cost to about 10 per cent to treat one million meter cube or raw water from the Weija Reservoir than in the Kpong reservoir.
According to Mr Njisse, if the alarming rate of degradation and pollution in the catchment zone was not arrested “in the next few years, the quality of water supply from the Weija Dam might not be fit for human consumption.”
“It is imperative that we do everything possible to avert this catastrophe,” the MD of Acqua Vitens Rand emphasised.
The municipal Chief Executive for Tarkwa, Mrs Christina Kobinah also complained that the disposal of house hold and agricultural waste and untreated mining effluents was a threat to water bodies.
The day was to highlight the relationship between clean water and increased productivity and to raise awareness of clean water which is critical to quality health among others.
In a speech read on his behalf, Mr Alban S. Bagbin, the Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing said that access to safe drinking water was one of the most pressing critical need facing mankind.
“Of the more than one billion people around the world who have little or no access to improved water and the hundreds of millions whose access is only to minimally improved but potable water, the vast majority live in rural communities in developing countries” he told the gathering.
Two million people said die globally each year from water bone disease and most of them were children
According to Mr Bagbin, in spite of the heightened concerns and initiatives by local and international institutions, it had been extremely difficult to implement viable solutions that were sustainable over long periods.
As a result, the minister said that billions of people were locked up in a cycle of poverty and disease.
He said that the global Decade 2005-2015 action programme must intensify advocacy efforts and actions to integrate the management of water resources which was being pursued by the Water Resources Commission (WRC).
“Integrated water resources management is crucial to the success or failure of the MDG’s as water is central to the livelihood of the poor and vulnerable health, good sanitation and irrigated agriculture” Mr Bagbin stressed.
The Decade, he again stated was a unique occasion to bring all stakeholders to apply solutions to the variety of problems on water.
The Managing Director of AcquaVitens Rand, Mr Martin Njisse on behalf of his company and the GWC said that, increasing water quality globally was one biggest challenge that had confronted all countries.
In Ghana, he said that lack of adequate monitoring and the enforcement of relevant laws had resulted in unfettered encroachment and degradation of water bodies.
“We are all aware that heavy pollution of water bodies has become major environmental problem in and around Tarkwa. It is common knowledge that surfacing mining, has left in its trail, pollution of rivers and streams through deposits of tailings and waste rocks and leachate of cyanide,” he told the gathering.
Mr Njisse said that, the picture in other parts of the country was also gloomy and reported that there was the heavy pollution around the Weije Lake in Accra and the Owabi Lake in Kumasi.
“What is even worrying is that unscientific fishing and farming in the catchment zones has resulted in increase in weed growth, creation of algal bloom and deterioration in water quality,” he added.
He said that poor quality of water had increased cost to about 10 per cent to treat one million meter cube or raw water from the Weija Reservoir than in the Kpong reservoir.
According to Mr Njisse, if the alarming rate of degradation and pollution in the catchment zone was not arrested “in the next few years, the quality of water supply from the Weija Dam might not be fit for human consumption.”
“It is imperative that we do everything possible to avert this catastrophe,” the MD of Acqua Vitens Rand emphasised.
The municipal Chief Executive for Tarkwa, Mrs Christina Kobinah also complained that the disposal of house hold and agricultural waste and untreated mining effluents was a threat to water bodies.
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