The dangers of encroachment and pollution of our water resources

The importance of water as a basic natural requirement for sustainable life cannot be over-emphasised.  

Three quarters of the earth’s surface is made up of water and so is the human body. There is no way life can be sustained without water. It is an indispensable part of our very livelihood. Indeed, it is one of God’s own given physiological needs of man in addition to air, food and sleep.

It is even scientifically postulated that the quality of our blood and effective performance of our kidneys depend largely on the quality of the water we drink.  Life, therefore, in the absence of water is not possible. It is essential to the sustenance of life for all living things. At the same time, it must be noted that water could be dangerous to human life if it is not carefully handled or protected.    

Chapter 19 of Agenda 21 of the RIO Conference advocates an integrated approach towards a sensible management of our water resources and for that matter river basins and their catchment areas free from all kinds of pollution and degradation.

 

Pollution

For years, environmentalists have been worried about imminent food shortages, spreading pollution, accelerating climate change and the early exhaustion of the world’s oil and other minerals. Their forecasts have seldom come true. Yet, they seem to have overlooked the most essential substance of all, which is WATER.   Now, however, there are dire predictions of water shortages in many countries through deforestation, environmental degradation and wanton pollution of our water sources.

Pollution of our existing watercourses remain the greatest threat to human health. A watercourse that is polluted can pose a serious threat to the natural environment, endangering human life and aquatic flora or fauna. 

The increasing rate of encroachment by developers and informal settlements along the immediate catchment areas of a water body could result in dangerous levels of pollution.  Human activities everywhere generate waste.   

It is, therefore, obvious that the increase in human activities in the form of farming, unconventional fishing methods and deforestation of dams and water bodies’ immediate protective vegetation zones do contribute gravely to the excessive pollution and degradation of water sources.

Pollution is a catchword which describes the process of contamination of the natural environment such that it becomes offensive or harmful to human, animal or plant life.  Although pollution may sometimes occur naturally, it is largely man-made.   

Our water sources over the years, in spite of numerous public education campaigns, have been and are still being defiled with refuse, dead domestic creatures, human excrement and every other imaginable species of nastiness.  

These are perpetrated by rascally and hygienically ruthless members of the population who live in informal settlements along the banks of these watercourses. They throw into the water bodies filth from mere wantonness and imprudent brutality without any thought of the unhealthy consequences of their actions.

 

Development and pollution

It is also sad to note that more sophisticated towns are still being developed in these areas with impunity.  One government after another has tried unsuccessfully to rein-in these wealthy developers and greedy so-called landowners who always give every exercise by any regime to stop it a political twist.  

Our governments have never been resolute in this direction. The recent incident at Wieja that caused the eviction of hundreds of residents at Glefe and Opete Kwei is a typical case in point.  

Several homes in the two communities were totally submerged in water after the spillage of the Wieja Dam by the Ghana Water Company Ltd.  An exercise the company could not afford to ignore without jeopardising the very existence of the dam with disastrous consequences to the nation’s water supply source.

It is pertinent to note that these residents had ignored all warnings from all authoritative sources over the years of the dangers that would befall them in the event of the spillage of excess water in the lake to save the dam. 

This problem is a countrywide problem. It happens at almost all the water resources in the country: i.e. Owabi and Barekese in Ashanti, in Tamale, Afram Plains, Inchaban in the Western Region, Brimso in Brong Ahafo, etc. etc.

The Densu River for instance is the main source of water supply to the Western part of the city of Accra.   It is, however, sad to note that this all important source of water supply has been subjected to regrettable and avoidable pollution and wanton encroachment over the past three decades or so with impunity.

 

Unbridled encroachment

The situation has become more alarming of late with the unbridled rate of encroachment by developers along its immediate catchment areas. In addition, there has been the mushrooming of informal settlements right from its source in the Eastern Region through Nsawam to the sea.  

Human activities here, including farming, fishing and other forms of vegetation loss along the immediate protective and buffer-zone areas, do contribute gravely to excessive pollution, degradation and wanton defiling of the watercourse.

In effect, the GWCL has to spend millions of cedis on chemicals and machinery in treating all the waters that suffer similar fate throughout the country to make it wholesome for human consumption and other such related usages, with its concomitant increase in the pricing of its water to the consumer.

Bad and unacceptable fishing practices such as the WINCH and ARTIJA methods have had their toll on the degradation of the quality of water in the dams; so has it been in the various agricultural activities along the banks of the river basins.   In fact, even the natural water cycle is presently threatened by human behaviour and activities.

Some of the tell-tale signs of these pollution and degradation activities are change in the colour of the water as seen in  what galamsey has done to most of the country’s water bodies such as Birim, Pra, Subri, Ankobra, the Black and The White Volta, etc.  

Another sign is the distressed aquatic creatures such as dead fishes along the banks of the rivers. The clearing of vast areas of the land along river banks for farming and other projects have contributed in no small measure to drying up of most of the country’s water bodies.

There is an urgent need to make a conscious effort to save the situation.  Actions devoid of politics and parochial interest should be taken to arrest the situation.  

The Ministry of Works & Housing, district assemblies, Water Resources Commission, Water Research Institute, the Ministry of Lands and Forestry and the Environmental Protection Agency are all stakeholders in the crusade to save our rivers and other watercourses in the country. The media must be motivated to join in this crusade to save the situation for our generations yet unborn.

The B.A.T. group afforestation initiative along the Wieja Dam must be encouraged and replicated in other parts of the country to protect the water bodies. The government must take a decisive action to stamp out the galamsey menace.

All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. Verbal posturing must give way to positive and decisive action.