Half of the forest cover of the Barekese dam that supplies millions of gallons of water to residents in the Ashanti Region has been lost to various human activities.
Over the years, the Ghana Water Limited (GWL) realised a change in the forest cover due to illegal mining, sand winning, construction of settlement within the catchment enclave and farming activities, resulting in a reduction of the size of the dam’s forest cover
Although the dam’s forest cover is about 19 kilometres square miles, only nine kilometres square miles were currently left, indicating that about 50 per cent of the forest cover had been lost due to various human activities.
The Chief Manager, Ashanti Production, GWL, Dr Hanson Mensah-Akutteh, disclosed this during a tree planting exercise to restore the degraded portion of the dam’s forest cover last week.
The GWL, in partnership with the Forestry Commission and as part this year’s Tree for Life (T4L) restoration initiative, has begun an intervention to plant 5,000 seedlings of various trees to restore the degraded forest cover of the dam located in the Atwima Nwabiagya North District.
As of 2022, a total of 18 kilometres square of forest cover, representing 4,447.9 acres, has been reduced to 9.0 kilometres square, representing 2224.6 cares, a development which has increased soil erosion, sedimentation of water bodies, including a reduced reservoir volume by about 30 per cent.
Similarly, the situation has led to the deterioration of raw water quality due to eutrophication and high turbidity.
He said the reafforestation was one of the important activities being carried out to ensure the protection of the surface water, saying, “the catchment area is a national asset and no single or few individuals should be allowed to destroy it”.
Slow pace
“The protection is such that we can have a better climate condition, temperature will be very good for the river source at all times and to make sure that the source is always available for abstraction,” he said.
He said, “what we are doing now is to recover the lost forest cover in a slow pace probably over a 10-year period so as to recapture the forest back to its natural habitat and the biodiversity ecosystem we desire to have”.
He highlighted the need for the media to continuously advocate against the destruction of the forest cover and stressed, “there is the need to ensure that the catchment area is a no-go area for destruction.
This will help us to treat enough water to serve the residents.”
“Let’s commit ourselves to restoring and protecting the forest cover through sustained reforestation efforts. By doing so, we are safeguarding water security, protecting livelihoods and contributing to national development,” Dr Mensah-Akutteh stated.
Siltation
Touching on the siltation of the dam, he indicated that the company had sent a request to the Ministry of Finance and was currently awaiting a commitment authorisation to pave the way for the dredging of the dam.
On the level of siltation, he said the original depth of the dam was 18 metres, but was currently left with eight metres, stressing, “the quantity of silt is about 6.5 million metre cube of volume in the reservoir”.
He said since the volume of silt was large, it could be done gradually so that the reservoir could absorb more water for treatment , adding, “something needs to be done about it now as the company is losing the actual catchment of volume of water for treatment for the Kumasi metropolis”.
Other speakers
The District Manager, Forest Services Division, Nkawie, Abraham Essel, said three tree species, Ofram, Mahogany and Cedrela Odorota were planted to restore the degraded landscape and protect the watershed.
More importantly, he said the Ofram and Mahogany, which would take considerable period to mature, would help protect the watershed for a very long period and save the dam from destruction.
For his part, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Atwima Nwabiagya North, Zachariah Mba, underscored the need for Ghanaians to embrace the initiative and play active roles towards the resoration of the country’s forest for the benefit of current and future generations.
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