The Acting Executive Secretary of the Water Resources Commission (WRC), Madam Adwoa Paintsil, has urged the public to desist from putting up structures on riverbeds and waterways to minimise and prevent flooding and pollution during this year’s major rainy season.
She made this call in Accra at the second webinar on the World Water Day Celebration under the theme: “Accelerating Change” with focus on the topic: “Flooding and its impact on Water Quality,”
She noted that the blockages by structures create artificial flooding which could otherwise be prevented and called on authorities to make efforts to stop these practices.
“Flooding affect lives and property and there is the need for the citizenry to be conscious of their activities of constructing buildings around rivers, streams and on waterways.”
Madam Paintsil stressed that a thorough discussion on flooding and its impact on water had become necessary and was in line with the United Nation’s directives which charges member states to ensure sustainable water and sanitation for all by the year 2030.
“Research has shown that we are far from reaching the goal by 2030, and so there is the need to accelerate the change to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6).”
Dr Mawuli Lumor in a presentation on the role of the WRC in the flood prevention activity stated that the Commission was leading efforts in the sector of integration of various systems to establish a Hydroclimate Database for Ghana’s Volta Basin.
“The WRC should perform future hydroclimate forecast and water resources vulnerability assessment while developing various adaptation strategies to cope with the impacts of climate change and variability,” he added.
Present at the panel discussions were the Director-General of UNESCO, Ms Audrey Azoulay, the Deputy Director for Synoptic Meteorology and Forecasting of the Ghana Meteorological Agency, Mr Joseph Portuphy, and the Director for Climate Change and DRR, Madam Charlotte Norman.
Richard Aniagyei, ISD
