Bolgatanga, Jan 29, GNA- Mr. Boniface Gambila, Upper East Regional Minister, on Monday called on District Assemblies in the region to support communities along the White Volta Basin with micro credit. This, he said, would enable them to undertake agricultural ventures like planting fruit trees and wood lots along the banks of the river to protect it and at the same time give them an income.
Mr. Gambila said this when he opened a workshop on the White Volta Basin Joint Consultative Forum aimed at strengthening the bilateral cooperation between Burkina Faso and Ghana on their shared water resources.
The workshop held in Bolgatanga attracted participants from Ghana and neighbouring Burkina Faso who are representing their communities, NGOs, District Assemblies and some technical experts. He noted that the Volta River had a big potential for hydropower generation, large-scale irrigation, inland fisheries development and eco-tourism.
Mr. Gambila said since Ghana and Burkina Faso shared the Volta River, competition for its use could be a source of conflict. He commended the Volta Water Governance Project (PAGEV) for their efforts at promoting participatory trans-boundary water management and preventing conflict, and urged it to work for an integrated and well-coordinated development and management of the Volta and other shared natural resource in the river basin.
"It is hoped that major strides towards fostering peace between our countries, reducing poverty through the development of water resources in a cooperative environment and improving the ecosystem through sustainable trans- boundary practices could be achieved", he said. Mr. Jacob Ouedrago, Governor of the Central East Region of Burkina Faso, noted that working together to manage the White Volta Basin also helped to strengthen the already established trans-boundary cooperation between the two countries.
He thanked the World Conservation Union for supporting the project. PAGEV is the brainchild of the Union, and it works at providing a platform for stakeholders in the pilot sub-basin of the White Volta to engage in constructive and collective dialogue on the common use of the shared water resource and to also dispel feelings of mistrust, which might come from misinformation, misconception and ignorance.
