Kumbungu: The Water Resources Commission (WRC) has conducted a two-day capacity-building workshop in Kumbungu, Northern Region, focusing on empowering local water committees along the White Volta Basin. The initiative aims to make these committees responsible for protecting water bodies, preserving riparian vegetation, and ensuring sustainable water resource use.
According to Ghana News Agency, the workshop assembled approximately 60 participants from the Nawuni sub-catchment area, representing communities such as Sheeni, Afayili, Nawuni, and Dalun Kukuo. The participants received training to identify environmental challenges and implement effective basin-level plans. The workshop also enabled the committees to develop strategies to combat issues like sand winning and deforestation.
The event, organized by the WRC with funding from Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is part of the Agricultural Growth and Improvement for Livelihood Enhancement (AGILE) project. This three-year initiative in the Savelugu and Kumbungu Districts seeks to improve crop yields, increase household incomes, and fortify smallholder farming communities' resilience.
Mr. Jesse Kazapoe, Basin Director for the White Volta Basin of the WRC, emphasized the workshop's goal of transforming community members into active agents in water resource management. He highlighted the importance of enhancing local water committee capacities to tackle issues such as deforestation, poor farming practices, flooding, and water pollution.
Mr. Kazapoe mentioned that the construction of a new bridge at Nawuni prompted the need to extend the initiative across the river. This development necessitated forming new local water committees by pairing members from the Western Bank communities with experienced Eastern Bank committee members.
Mr. Mohammed Soale, Assembly Member for Sing in the Sheeni Electoral Area, praised the WRC and its partners for involving residents in water resource management, underscoring the committees' crucial role in daily water management.
Participants recognized key issues like deforestation, poor farming practices, flooding, and siltation. They proposed measures such as enacting by-laws to ban sand winning, promoting responsible agrochemical use, and adopting 'dig and close' sand winning strategies. Other suggestions included dredging water bodies, banning riverbank farming, and enforcing strict penalties for violators.
The meeting concluded with recommendations for erecting signposts at forest reserves, constructing flood walls, banning illegal mining and sand winning, and organizing regular community clean-up campaigns. Participants identified traditional authorities, opinion leaders, government agencies, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders as essential partners in addressing these environmental challenges.
