Climate Change and a thirsty world

Floods came in abandon three months ago and destroyed properties including lives in parts of northern Ghana. Now flooded areas are dry up leaving the people on the breadline for clean drinking water as the flood waters dripped underground and percentage ran into polluted lakes, rivers and salted sea.

Studies on water situation in northern Ghana indicated 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 October. Available surface water is about 1, 737 billion gallons per annum which is about 19% 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% according to the Ghana Hydrological Service Department.

Northern region has an estimated population rate of 2.8% according to the 2000 population and housing census. The implication is that population is steadily increasing but the water resources are not available throughout the year. This resulted in water rationing, created 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 had changed and the people would not have privilege to meet their Millennium Development Goals (MDG) on water. Here comes a new way of conserving water-rainwater harvesting tank technology. The technology which is said to be unaffordable considering per capita income of the people is just one way of climate change mitigation or adaptation on water.

According to the 2000 population census, northern region had 1,820,806 people and the daily water available at the time was 2083 gallons per person.

The estimated 2010 census is 2,259800 and the daily water available is now reduced to 1,659 gallons per person, a reduction of 20% within ten years according to the authorities of Ghana Water Company.

The seriousness of this is that Ghana Water Company could not expand to cover almost every rural community. The bulk of the water managed is concentrated within urban cities leaving our rural folk grappling for clean drinking water.

 As result the region is grappling with guinea worm disease, a debilitating diseases that though could be eradicated but continue to stay despite actions by Ghana Health Service (GHS) and government of Ghana and Carter center.

The under ground waters are also said to be full of alkaline, fluoride, high chlorine content that makes its usage or consumption impossible. Most communities whose are forced to drink from these water sources and now suffering tooth decay and gum disease. Climate change had worsened the plight of these people leaving in breadline for clean drinking water.     

 In Some communities women and children have to trek for distance in search for cleaner water for house chores. they apparently have to compete with animals for the scare resource to make a living.

Aftermath of Durban conference: CARE demands immediate review of “Green Fund establishment”

Francis Npong, Accra-Ghana,  Officials of CARE International are unhappy with the outcome of the just ended Climate

Mr. Baba Tuahiru addressing participants during the workshop

Change negotiation Conference (COP17) held in Durban, South Africaand demanded immediate review. According to the organization, though the parties agreed on the establishment of “Green Fund” at the last minutes before the end of COP17, the source(s) of the fund was/were not established.

This, CARE said would not only make the implementation of climate actions difficult but would render the ‘binding agreement’ in the Kyoto Protocolineffective. The organization however demanded immediate review to establish sources of funding to “Green fund” to finance effective climate change campaigns the world over.

A Coordinator of CARE Ghana, Mr. Baba Tuahiru who expressed the opposition of the organization was addressing experts and some members of civil society organizations operating in Ghana during a day’s workshop on climate change adaptation experiences in Ghana.

The workshop which was organized by “Building Capacity to meet the climate change challenge (B4C) project” being run by the University of Ghana in collaboration with CARE International Adaptation Learning Programme (ALP), Ghana Wildlife Society, Centre for African Wetlands and the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology held at the Centre for African Wetlands Auditorium at the University of Ghana reviewed the just ended COP17 and discussed climate challenges arising in Ghana.

Mr. Tuahiru stated that the feet dragging by developed countries to support by ratifying Kyoto Protocol document to make it binding to deal with climate change was unfortunate. “it is unfortunate that developed nations were unwilling to support Kyoto Protocol to make it binding on parties though they are aware the impacts of their activities on developing countries”, he said.

“To avoid blames, a green fund was established but there was no source(s) of funding and that will make the realization of that fund difficult”, he stressed. Climate Change, Mr. Tuahiru pointed out does not affect developed nations alone and that the economic meltdown in developed nations given rise to youth uprising was partly because of climate change. He however, urged developed nations to develop their own adaptation programmes, and integrate them into their development plans, build climate resilience projects to reduce the effects global warming their people.

He said that CARE was collaborating with a number of organizations in some African nationsto implementation Adaptation Learning Programme aimed at integrating climate change policies in people’s daily activities.

Professor Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu of the University of Ghana addressing participants during the workshop

The University of Ghana’s B4C project Director Professor Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu disclosed that the University of Ghana through B4C project would soon rollout climate change courses to build capacities of people in Africa to help cope with climate change effects.

She said the project would also support the first 15 students that enrolled into the programme as parts of the university’s plans to support the continent to cope with development challenges rises as a result of climate change. The institution Prof. Ntiamoa-Baidu hinted would also undertake research to determine the level of climate change effects on livelihoods and development.

She appealed for partnership and collaboration to help them train human resources to build climate change resilience projects to support the livelihoods of the poor and vulnerable within the Africa continent. Some of the topics discussed during the workshop includes building capacity for the climate change challenge B4C project, Climate change adaptation through integrated water resources management in the three northern regions of Ghana, lessons from conservation agriculture practices, climate change and health in Accra project, climate change and food security in the Afram Plains in Ghana , importance of technology in climate change adaptation and sharing information on water management systems and livelihoods project under the global water Initiative among other topics. The workshop also proposed capacity building for government and policy makers and implementers, building climate change resilience projects, integration of climate change into national development plans and programmes and equipping rural dwellers the necessary knowledge and technologies to improve agricultural practices, forestation and forest conservation and the use of efficient energy technologies as a way forward to the adaptation of climate change in Ghana.