Water for rural Africa calls for responsible use of water

The attention of the Water for Rural Africa (WRA) has been drawn to a press release by the Ghana Water Company Limited dated 25th January 2018 appealing to the general public to help manage and conserve water during this dry season. We wish to associate with this call.
Access to good drinking water has become a challenge the world over and we cannot over emphasis the importance of water to the Ghanaian economy.
The current challenge brings to the fore the changing global climate which calls for very
prudent action by world leaders and managers of water resources in the management of water resources. More than half of the world’s population currently is without access to clean drinking water. It will be recalled that, the Cape Province of South Africa is faced with a similar challenge if not worse. We cannot wait for a similar crisis to hit Ghana before the authorities act. This is the more reason why WRA joins in the call for a more responsible use of our water resource. This call is basically calling on Ghanaians to adopt a behavioral and attitudinal change with regards to our use of water.
We are by this release calling on all Ghanaians to see the urgent need to be more prudent in our use of water for both domestic and commercial purposes. Beyond this we wish to propose the following short and medium term measures to Ghana Water Company Limited.
 To act promptly on all reported water leakage and broken pipes to safe water wastage by putting together a rapid response unit.
 Take the appropriate steps to prosecute offenders and persons found to have been engaged in illegal connections which usually happens with the connivance of GWCL staff.
 Build more storage facilities across the country with the capacity to harvest, treat and preserve rain water aside the traditional reliance on dams which easily and quickly dry up during the dry season as a result of global warming.
 Together with the ministry of Housing, encourage the development of the technology/architecture for domestic rain water harvesting and storage.
 Champion a campaign and if necessary sponsor legislation that will encourage the importation of only water efficient appliances such as water closets, water spraying guns, water sprinklers among others for both domestic and public use.
 The drilling of boreholes has become even more important not only for the Rural communities but also necessary for the urban communities. GWCL should consider borehole drilling as another option for urban communities.
 We also recommend water recycling. This has become necessary to utilize every available water resource. It is more important in communities where access to clean drinking water remains a dream and also in the cities where a lot of water is rendered unproductive and runs to waste.
 Another important option is to invest resources into the water desalination plant in Teshie by way of expanding its facilities to secure an increase in production in the short term. Construction of additional desalination plants to ease pressure on the current plant could be an option for a long term plan.
It is important to emphasize the need to resolve all resulting and outstanding management issues that is currently keeping the Teshie desalination plant from operation. This has become even more urgent considering the current need to augment on our water supply.
WRA will like to take this opportunity to commend government on its one village one dam policy and call on government to expedite action in realizing this policy considering the fact that water scarcity could get rapidly worse as supply contracts and demand escalate due to a decrease in rainfall as a result of climate change.
About Water for Rural Africa (WRA)
We are a development organization established to support and champion the realization of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Goal 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation. It’s a non – governmental, not-for-profit, non-partisan organization working for the Social Development of the vulnerable and less developed communities in rural Africa. WRA is a Human – centered NGO, an implementing organization which designs and implements various developmental projects in the water and sanitation sector with the financial and technical support of international donor agencies and the government.
Signed.
Dr. Donald Cog Senanu Agumenu
President, Water for Rural Africa