The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has said it almost shut down its systems in February 2022 at Nawuni in the Kumbungu district due to the persistent activities of illegal sand winning despite the intervention of military personnel in 2018 to chase the operators out of the area.
Sand winning activities continuous unabated at the Nawuni river despite the numerous calls for the people to seize their operations especially at the upstream.
This continues to threaten supply of water to the Tamale metropolis and the adjoining districts in the northern region.
Mr. Nicholas Okyere, the Production Manager of the Ghana Water Company Limited has said the matter should be seen now an issue of national security threat and called on the Northern Regional Minister, Shani Alhassan Shaibu, to intervene.
“We have engaged Assemblymen, we’ve engaged District Chief Executives, we engaged Chiefs, farmers, we’ve engaged everybody. So we thought necessary to, once we have exhausted all those opportunities and there are no positive results – we decided to get to the Regional Minister who we believe have the power to engage the Regional Security Council to see this as a national security threat” he noted.
He said, “We are putting about $275 million dollars to build a new treatment plant at Yapei and if this thing is to continue, the Republic of Ghana will invest this much money trying to give the people water but people say NO we will destroy the source and the whole project will become a white elephant”.
He added, “We say ground water is a hidden treasury but Tamale is not part of that treasury because the supply of water that we can get from the ground is not here; even if we get, the water quality is not good for human consumption, it becomes very expensive to treat which the average household cannot afford to treat, so our only hope is the White Volta”.
Mr. Nicholas Okyere made these remarks at a short ceremony organized by the Catholic Relief Service to commemorate the 2022 World Water Day in Tamale on Tuesday, March 22, 2022.
This year’s event was observed on the theme: “Groundwater – Making the Invisible Visible”.
Meanwhile, the CRS Head of Programs, Caroline Raes, seized the opportunity to implore other nongovernmental organizations such INGOs, LNGOs, FBOs, CBOs, local water champions, communities, corporate actors and the public sector stakeholders to join the growing coalition committed to protecting and sustaining White Volta.
She said, “Together, we can deliver quality water services at scale to vulnerable population and ensure a water secured world for all”.
Interventions of CRS
She disclosed the CRS and its coalition of partners have reconstituted and trained 30 Water, Sanitation and Management Teams (WSMTs) to ensure proper management of the few point sources in Greater Tamale.
In addition, six are mechanics have also been trained and equipped to support in the maintenance of broken-down water facilities and also conducted a study to determine the extent of damage to the White Volta Basin and feasibility of establishing a water fund.
“Considering the socio-economic importance of the White Volta which is the only fresh water source for Tamale and its environs, there is urgent need to address the environmental issues along the river basin, especially at Nawuni where abstraction and treatment take place” she urged.
The CRS Head of Programs maintained further delays in finding practical and sustainable solution, the continuous degradation will lead to only one outcome – complete shutdown of Ghana Water Company treatment plant
The Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Shani Alhassan Shaibu, for his part urged for more advocacy and continuous awareness creation of the general public on safe guarding the water bodies.
“I therefore urge you all to be interested in water security issues including water scarcity and flooding within our various communities as it is a shared responsibility”.
Collaborations
Mr. Shani Shaibu said, “We must collectively work together to protect and restore water-related ecosystems from deforestation and general environmental degradation, stating in furtherance to this, we in Tamale must consciously protect the White Volta basin at Nawuni as it poses security threat to the supply of water to Tamale and its surrounding environs.
“I am reliably informed that 53% of the population in 2020 that used groundwater were for domestic purposes whiles 32% was for industrial and mining in across the country. On the other hand, I am equally informed by experts that, it is very limited to access groundwater in Tamale due the unfavourable hydrogeological formation of the area as well as water quality issues.
“This makes the use of mechanized boreholes very limited. For this reason, Tamale generally depends on the White Volta River as the only fresh water source with the intake point at Nawuni in the White Volta basin” he stated.
