The Concerned Citizens of Atewa Landscape (CCAL) and A Rocha Ghana has made a clarion call on government to ensure inclusiveness in the planning and management of development programs that have an impact on Ghana’s water resources.
At a press conference addressed by Oteng Adjei, PRO of CCAL, they said Ghana may not achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 6 by 2030, if it fails to put in place an emergency protection program to secure all watersheds in Ghana.
“We ask government and the agencies that be to revisit our national water policy to focus on: Giving whole legal protection status for all watersheds or forest reserves that serve as head waters for all major river basins in the country,” they said.
They further asked that government to create vegetation buffers along water courses and give these buffers legal protection and support nature-based strategies that give incentives to communities that support watershed protection and management in Ghana.
CCAL advised government to “Explore nature-based strategies for enhancing these watersheds for revenue generation and enhancing the livelihood of communities who live close to these water towers.”
Galamsey
The group also employed government to re-strategize and re-organize to address galamsey and illegal small-scale mining.
“Without any doubts, we are aware of the resurging influx of foreigners to areas where galamsey was previously rife. Not seeing them mine in the open, does not mean mining is not happening. The miners are now hiding in the ticket of existing forest reserves that is why the rivers and streams are not clearing up.”
“We the Concerned Citizens of Atewa, state without any equivocation that, there is serious under-storey mining going on in the Atewa Forest Reserve and other forest reserves…It is interesting to observe that we have not re-organized to halt the resurging impunity that is creeping up,” they noted.
