February 15, 2018

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HERITAGE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2018
Protecting our water bodies:
Who cares?
WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
BY CHARLES BENONI OKINE
WATER,
THEY say,
is life. This
is a common
saying
but
never taken seriously because we
are fortunate today to access that
valuable resource everywhere in
the country.
In December last year, I was in
Sandton, South Africa, with a few
colleagues from other parts of the
continent at the invitation of Barclays
Africa Group.
I safely arrived at my plush fivestar
hotel after a long flight from
Accra to Johannesburg. Minutes
after my key was handed to me, a
lady at the counter said: “Sir, you
will have to kindly bear with us.
The taps have not been running
for days but the problem will be
fixed by tomorrow.” One can
imagine the grim on my face.
Later at dinner, a gentleman
who overhead some of my friends
and I complaining bitterly about
the situation said: “Gentlemen, I
don’t see this to be a problem.
Come to Cape Town and you
will understand the gravity of no
water.”
Reading later, I got to know
that in beautiful Cape Town, there
is no water.
This may sound strange to
many but it is a fact. Water is one
of the scarcest resources in that
side of South Africa.
Climate change has had a telling
effect on the citizens living there
to an extent that the last option
now is to rely on the sea at a huge
cost for potable water.
Water rationing
in Ghana
The Ghana Water Company
Limited (GWCL) announced a
couple of weeks ago that it had
begun rationing water in most
parts of the country as a result of
the dry season, environmental
degradation and pollution of water
bodies by illegal miners.
Those activities, the company
said, had derailed its efforts at extracting
enough water for treatment,
accounting for the
inadequate supply of water to consumers.
In an interview with the Daily
Graphic in Accra, the Head of
Communications at the GWCL,
Mr Stanley Martey, said with the
exception of the Eastern and
•A number of water bodies in Ghana have been polluted
Ashanti regions, all other regions
had been affected by the rationing,
with the Western Region being the
worst affected.
“We are only able to utilise
about 40 per cent of the capacity
of the treatment plant in the Western
Region because the water level
in the River Pra, one of sources of
water supply, is very low,” he observed.
Causes of shortages
It is a fact that climate change is
having a telling effect on our water
bodies. The dry seasons have become
far more than the wet periods
and, therefore, it is a natural
occurrence to have the water bodies
drying up.
In spite of this, it is also a fact
that governments have stopped investing
funds to dredge the water
bodies.
It is a common phenomenon
that when water bodies are
dredged frequently, more water
stays in because siltation is prevented.
Another major cause of the
water bodies either drying up or
getting permanently polluted is the
known canker of ‘galamsey’.
It has become so evident that
there are some political party financiers
who have vowed to indulge
in that illegal activity because they
are classified as ‘untouchables’.
The evidence of their criminal
act is on the wall, yet we are all sitting
aloof for a few to mess our
future survival.
It is a fact that many people,
who describe themselves as squatters,
have taken over the banks of
water bodies.
They use the water bodies as
their waste dump, toilet and
bathing area.
A typical example is the Odaw
river where the population of the
squatters along the entire stretch
keeps growing by the day.
Year after year, governments
continue to sink millions of
Ghana cedis into projects just to
dredge the river.
It is unfortunate that nobody in
government deems it wise to think
that the huge sums of money
could be channeled into something
more productive for these people
rather than spending it on dredging.
It beats me why people in authority
allow such simple common
sense to elude them. One wonders:
if the money used belonged to
them, would they spend it without
thinking twice?
The consequences of
our actions and inaction, as
far as protecting these vital
human resources are concerned,
seem far from us
because those in authority
feel old and, therefore, assume
that they may die
soon.
However, we should be
alert to know that even if
they pass away, their children
and the generation
after them will bear the full
brunt of their misdeeds.
Already, we have not
been able to attain universal
water coverage in the
country.
Instead of working to
achieve that, we are rather
creating a complete mess
with the little we have.
Have we thought about
the impact of no water on
our economy which is already
struggling and not
finding its feet?
We cannot continue to
Conclusion
live in a country where we
think more about political
gains today at the expense
of what is best to enable
us to survive tomorrow.
All these negative things
being done to our water
bodies are caused by humans
and it is time for
those who are at the helm
of affairs now to live up to
their responsibilities in the
greater interest of the survival
of humankind.
The alarm bells are
ringing loudly in my ears
and the wise must hear.
Mike Huckabee said:
“The most important
thing about global warming
is this. Whether humans
are responsible for
the bulk of climate change
is going to be left to the
scientists, but it's all of our
responsibility to leave this
planet in better shape for
the future generations than
we found it.”