PhD Thesis Emmanuel Obeng Bekoe - Cranfield University

Emmanuel Obeng Bekoe Phd Thesis Chapter 1 Background and Problem
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poor water delivery structures which have, over the years, been producing
below their installed capacities due to worn out mechanical plants (WRC, 2000).
The resultant effects of these environmental problems within the basin
culminated in a public outcry over the quality and quantity of water supplied
from the Weija Reservoir within the basin, resulting in a ban on farming along
the Densu river by the government (e.g. Daily Graphic, Friday 14/09/2001) and
a call to use water resources judiciously (Daily Graphic, Thursday 18/09/2001)
as shown in Figure 1.5.
As a result of the growing public concern, the government of Ghana signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in 1999 with the United Nations Centre
for Human Settlements-Habitat (UNCHS) to collaborate in a project on
“Managing Water for African Cities”. The project was meant to find solutions to
the increasing water demand in the fast growing African cities of which Accra,
and subsequently the Densu basin, featured. The resulting report by Nii
Consult (2001), concluded:
“the Densu River Basin is being degraded by intensified agriculture involving the
use of agrochemicals, timber logging, fuel-wood extraction, urban wastes
(excreta, garbage, and liquid). This is threatening the livelihood and also the
natural resources on which the majority (farmers) depend. In addition the
survival of the terrestrial bio-diversity is at risk”.
Nii Consult (2001) also recommended the formation of a Densu River Basin
Management Board (DRBMB) with the objective to facilitate the co-ordination
and integration of the plans and programmes of the different institutions at the
district level. The DRBMB was inaugurated in Accra on March 22 2004
comprising of 17 Board members who come from (Ghanaweb, 2004) five out of
the eight districts within the basin; government ministries (i.e. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA); Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA); Ministry of
Health (MOH); Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL)); religious bodies, nongovernmental
organizations, the National Council on Women and Development
(NCWD), traditional rulers, the Water Research Institute (WRI) of the Council for