WRC CALLS FOR MORE PROTECTION FOR WATER BODIES (SPREAD)

The Water Resources Commission (WRC) has called for a comprehensive institutional and legal framework to protect water bodies in the country.
The commission identified pollution, lack of a legal framework, improper land use and the inadequate reliable management of information as some of the difficulties associated with the safety and protection of water resources in the country.
An official of the commission, Mr Stephen Acheampong-Boateng, made the call on behalf of the commission at a workshop for a cross-section of the public, journalists, information officers, as well as officials from the district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies, in Takoradi in the Western Region.
Mr Acheampong-Boateng underscored the need for attitudinal change to arrest the situation, and said although there were laws to protect water bodies, their enforcement was weak, making it easy for people to destroy water bodies with impunity.
“If people followed the procedure and were educated on the importance of these water bodies to our existence things would have been different.
“If we continue, crop yield will reduce while waterborne diseases and cost of potable water production will increase,” he said.
For her part, Mrs Adwoa Munkua Dako, the Public Relations Officer of the commission, said WRC was mandated, among others, to make regulations for water resource management under Article 12 of Act 522.
She said Section 35 (1) of the Act also provided that the commission could by legislative instrument (LI) make regulations for prevention of existing use of water, controlling any change in the watercourse, current or cross current of any contained surface water.
Mrs Dako said the commission discharged its mandate by monitoring water quality, creating public awareness, developing policies, setting up of basin board and assessing groundwater, among others.
The commission, Mrs Dako said, also worked to foster co-operation with other stakeholders in the management of trans-boundary water resources and promote dialogue towards the establishment of permanent mechanisms for the management of international river basins.
She reminded the district assemblies, as custodians of natural resources, to work together with the Water Resources Commission to promote the safety and protection of water bodies.