Water pollution can be defined as anything humans do
to cause harmful effects to water bodies. This can include pollution of rivers,
lakes, oceans, and ground water pollution. The causes of pollution in water are
virtually endless.
Manufacturing
plants are major causes of water pollution, using bodies of fresh water to
carry away waste that can contain phosphates, nitrates, lead, mercury and other
harmful and toxic substances. Hot water discharged into streams can raise the
temperature of rivers to change the chemistry of water bodies causing what is
termed as ―thermal pollution (Grill, 2007).
Mining is an
activity classified as most polluting as well as a drain on the dwindling water
resources in the World. A study conducted by the Economic Commission for Africa
(ECA) in 1999 on the water situation in African countries specifically cited
Ghana as being one of the most water-stressed countries.
In Ghana, the
effects of the activities of mining companies on water bodies through
dewatering, ground water pollution, the free use of water for mining
operations, pollution of streams through cyanide and other waste spillages, are
contributing enormously to impoverishing the communities who live around their
operational areas.
Thus, as Ghana
joined the rest of the world to mark this year’s Word Fresh Water Day
Celebration which fell on 22nd March, stakeholders in the water and
sanitation sector of the country’s economy, strongly urged government to deal with
the problem of illegal small scale miners as well as other multinational
companies or individuals engaged in the pollution of fresh water resources in
many parts of the country.
This year’s
event was under the theme: “International Year of Water Cooperation”.
The day is set aside as a means of focusing attention on the importance of
fresh water and advocating for the sustainable use and management of fresh
water resources and this has been celebrated each year. The celebration was first
recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED). The UN General Assembly responded by designating 22nd
March 1993 as the first world fresh water day and since then, it had been
celebrated each year highlighting on specific aspects of fresh water.
Recent studies on water
situation in Northern Ghana showed that the region is endowed with surface water and
much less of groundwater
resources. The area is relatively dry, with a single rainy
season that begins June or July and ends in October. Available surface water is
about 1, 737 billion gallons per annum which is about 19 percent of the total
annual national figure of 40 billion m3.
However, this amount is not
available all year round as most of the rivers draining the region dwindle to
hardly any or no flow in the dry season with only pockets of stagnant water
remaining because of the high seasonal rainfall variation.
The region underlain by
mainly the voltaian sedimentary geological formation which is generally
perceived as not a good source of groundwater with low borehole success rate of
about 53 percent according to the Ghana Hydrological Service Department.
The Northern Region for
instance, has an estimated population rate of 3 percent according to the 2010 population and housing census. The
implication is that population is steadily increasing but the water resources
are not available throughout the year. This results in water rationing, creates
conflict for water among residents.
This also implies that there
is growing demand for clean drinking water which is exacerbating the
degradation of land and water resources as well as increasing conflict in water
use.
Now
with the advent of climate change, the area is faced with severe water crisis.
The rainfall patterns have changed and government would not have the privilege
to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on
water.
Diseases from
unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation kill more people every year than all
forms of violence, including war. Children are especially vulnerable, as their
bodies aren't strong enough to fight diarrhea, dysentery and other illnesses.
According to the 2000 population census, Northern Region had 1,820,806 people
and the daily water available at the time was 2,083 gallons per person. The
estimated 2010 census is 2,468,557and the
daily water available is now reduced to 1,659 gallons per person, a reduction
of 20 percent within ten years according to the authorities of Ghana Water
Company Limited (GWCL).
Also, it is
estimated that 500,000 people in five Metropolitan, Municipal and District
Assemblies (MMDAs) in the region, could soon experience erratic supply of
potable water to their homes by 2015 due to the inability of the water
Treatment Plant at the Dalun Headworks to work beyond its optimum level.
The GWCL said the
optimization of the plant capacity at the Dalun Headworks would be due in 2015.
This is because, the last expansion and rehabilitation works at the Dalun Headworks
by Messer’s Biwater BV in 2008, were expected to reach their final optimization
by 2015 and thus would not be able to pump water beyond the required capacity
from Nawuni or White Volta River for treatment and consumption by the populace.
The GWCL supply
water from its production site at Dalun to almost half-a-million people spread
across the Tamale Metropolis, Savelugu-Nanton Municipality, Sagnarigu, Tolon
and Kumbungu Districts, with its larger clientele being residents of Tamale.
Currently, the
GWCL daily production is about 7 million gallons or 39,000 cubic meters. Even
though this figure is expected to increase due to population rise, GWCL officials
dread the 7 million gallons daily production could become insufficient if
another water expansion project that is expected to have been under
construction by now to increase production levels is further delayed by
government.
The Nawuni River, the main production source of
potable water for residents of the five MMDAs in the region, has recently come
under serious environmental threat.
Years of uncontrolled sand winning by building
contractors and owners of tipper-trucks, has destroyed farmlands and the
ecosystem along the river banks including economic and medicinal trees. As a
result, the depth of the river has reduced drastically over the years due to
silt which has incapacitated its water holding ability.
More worrying is the fact that the silting of the
river is posing a great danger to residents of the aforementioned MMDAs, threatening
the river’s future capacity to supply the required volume of water to about
half a million people.
sand wining activity on the banks of Nawuni River |
An official
source at GWCL says it cost the company an amount of GH¢50,000.00 to procure
chemicals such as alum and others to treat the water in order to ensure that it
is safe for consumption. This means that the more the river is polluted, the
more chemicals would be required to treat the water and the public could
therefore pay more for it in future.
Indeed, the region currently suffers from shortages in
clean drinking water and about 40 percent (CWSA, 2009) of people use unimproved
sources of drinking water. As a result, incidences of water-borne diseases such
as diarrhoea, hepatitis A, typhoid, cholera and among others are common.
Waterborne diseases are spread through contaminated
drinking water supply and through inadequate sanitation and hygiene practices. Also,
37.5 percent of people use unprotected ponds, lakes or streams as sources of
potable water supply in the region. This problem is exacerbated by a lack of
safe sanitation, especially when 92 percent of residents lack access to
improved sanitation (VanCalcar, 2006).
Addressing a forum in Tamale to mark the
celebration of the 2013 world fresh water day organized by World Vision Ghana,
David Nunoo, Coordinator of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Coordinator of
the NGO, called for cooperation amongst all Ghanaians towards the use and
management of water resources in order to ensure their sustainability for
future use.
He reckoned the
fact that, government has a huge responsibility in making available potable
water to its citizens as well as ensuring that those polluting fresh water
resources put a stop to it by enforcing environmental laws and prosecuting
those who breached such laws.
Mr. also Nunoo
called on government to double up
efforts to make available safe drinking water to a lot of Ghanaians
particularly women and children in rural areas who still walk long distances in
search of the precious commodity which most often affect their occupational and
schooling hours.
Meanwhile,
according to a World Health Organisation and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme
report on water and sanitation, Ghana currently has exceeded its 2015 target of
78 percent coverage for use of improved drinking water by 6 percent. The report
however said a significant proportion of the population (about 3.5 million) still do not use
improved sources of drinking water and more effort is still needed to extend
coverage to these people. On sanitation, further analysis of available data indicates
that for Ghana to reach its MDG target of 53 percent for use of improved
sanitation by 2015, it will mean that as much as 1.2 million people need to use or have access to improved sanitary
facilities every year till 2015 (from
2008).
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