Commission expresses concern over water pollution

The Public Relations officer of the Water Resource Commission (WRC), Mrs. Adowa Dako has expressed worry over what she described as “apathy that has gripped the country” in relation to water pollution.

She said the practice whereby some chiefs and land owners give lands to foreigners while others supplied them with equipment to engage in illegal mining, resulting in the destruction of water bodies, was a very worrying situation.

Mrs. Dako who expressed the sentiment at a day’s workshop for journalists in Cape Coast on Monday stressed the need to safeguard water bodies in the country, bearing in mind that “there is no substitute for water”.

She pointed out that Illegal mining and other activities were heavily polluting water bodies such as River Pra which used to be a source of drinking water for both humans and animals and in addition made water treatment very expensive.

The workshop, attended by about 20 journalists across the Central Region was aimed at training participants in “Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), Water Laws and Regulations and Environmental Reporting”.

The commission has adopted the IWRM as the key approach towards realizing its mandate of regulating and managing the utilization of water resources and coordinating relevant government policies in relation to them.

The key elements of IWRM are regulations and licensing, development of policies and strategies, decentralization of IWRM activities, water body planning, Water resources Assessment, Public awareness creation and education, addressing climate change and trans-boundary cooperation.

Mrs. Dako said the commission was making efforts to clamp down on water pollution and one of the ways was through the Inter-sectorial Security Taskforce which arrested a number of Chinese illegal miners, seized their equipment and deported them back to their country.

She said in addition the commission was using the organization of awareness creation campaign to check the activity and urged journalists to step up their watch dog role in the society by reporting more on water and other environmental issues.

She also urged journalists to whip up their interest in environmental reporting by learning more about environmental issues and its associated terminologies to equip them to write concise, educative and easy understanding news reports.

Mr. Eric Muala, the monitoring Officer of WRC who presented on Water Laws and Regulations stated that any person who alters the flow or pollutes a water resource beyond the level the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may prescribe commits an offence.

He said except in accordance with provisions of the WRC Act, 1996 or with approval from the EPA such a person who commits such an offence was liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding 500 penalty units or an imprisonment term not exceeding two years or both.

Mr Muala explained other laws governing water use such as “Drilling License and Ground Water Development Regulations of 2006” and emphasized the need to adhere to them or suffer its dire consequence on livelihood.

Some participants who spoke to the Ghana News Agency said the workshop had enlightened and stirred in them the desire to intensify environmental stories.