Capacity Of Communities In West Mamprusi Enhanced Towards IWRM

Zua and Mishio are two agrarian communities located along the White Volta River running through the West Mamprusi District of the Northern Region of Ghana. Both communities depend greatly on the river water resources for their livelihoods, thus the two communities and the river seemed almost inseparable just like a baby and its mother’s umbilical cord. 

Thus, as part of efforts to promote efficient and judicious use of water resources in the communities under a climate change project dubbed “Fighting Climate Change Through Reforestation” that was financed by German non-governmental organisation Hanns-Seidel-Foundation, the West Mamprusi District Assembly and her decentralised departments, carried out Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) awareness education in the aforementioned communities in line with the district’s agenda to strengthen local civil society capacity in the fight against climate change. 

Currently, the livelihoods of the communities were under threat by sharing and utilising the river water resources due to the dictates of climate change induced weather conditions. 

Consequently, IWRM was considered as a coordinated attempt to manage water related resources in the areas in order to maximise economic and social welfare benefits by protecting the district’s environment, foster economic growth and sustainable agricultural development, promote good governance, and improve human health.

According to the Project Coordinator Issifu Sulemana Jobila, the IWRM education enhanced the poor rural communities’ capacity to practice and manage scarce water resources in the district by making prudent decisions and taking actions while considering multiple view points of how water resources should be used or shared.

The basis for IWRM, he explained, was that the many different uses of limited water resources were interdependent, citing for instance, small scale irrigation demands and polluted drainage flows from agriculture means, less freshwater for drinking or domestic use, contaminated wastewater from chemical fishing as practiced currently by the communities pollute the river and threaten ecosystems. “If water has to be left in a river to protect fisheries and ecosystems, less can be diverted to grow crops”, he emphasised. 

Realising this, Mr. Jobila said the project’s overall goal as also captured in the district’s development plan stipulated that, local civil society capacity be strengthened to enable them take up their own local action or initiatives against climate change and its affected crucial sectors of natural resources. 

He also noted that the introduction of IWRM awareness education was intended to build the capacity of the people of Zua and Mishio so that they could manage scarce water resources during the lean season (dry season) very well, thereby reducing conflicts among different competing farmers over the use of water resources.

The programme was also to instil in members of both communities the knowledge of integrated water resource management practices so as to enable them adapt to climate change effects and impact.

In all, a total of 212 people comprising of fishermen, traders, farmers, chiefs, opinion leaders, women, and children participated in the programme. Out of this, 72 were female whiles 140 were male.

Participants were taken through topics such as overview of integrated water resource management under climate change, types of water resources and principles of integrated water resource management, international agreements and conventions under integrated water resource management, district development agenda on water resources, upper and downstream issues of water resources, among others.