Cecilia Dapaah with the Ghana Committee for UNESCO IHP
The Ghana Committee for UNESCO IHP has been revived by the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources at an inaugural ceremony that saw a 15-member committee drawn from various agencies and institutions to support the implementation of its mandate.
The body would promote United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation UNESCO Inter-governmental Hydrological Programme (IHP) activities in Ghana.
The committee will work to advance the cause of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Inter-governmental Hydrological Programme (IHP) activities in Ghana.
The committee members include; Mr Ben Y. Ampomah, Mr Apollonius O.A. Asare, Dr Emmanuel Obuobie, Mr Philip Tetteh Padi, Mr James Ashaley, Dr Michael Tuffour, Mr Joseph Ayer, and Mr Mawutor Ablo.
The rest are; Mr Oduro Donkor, Mr Samuel Owusu Ansah, Mrs Jewel Kudjawu, Mrs Margaret Macauley, Ms Suzzy Abaidoo, Mr Sylvester Darko and Mr Ato Ankoh.
Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, inaugurating the Committee mentioned that UNESCO IHP had its focus on water sciences and resources management to address emerging needs of its member states to promote international cooperation.
The programme, she noted seeks to specifically serve member states to upgrade their knowledge on various processes; physical, ecological, cultural, economic and social, that regulates or concerns water quantity and quality and distribution in space and time and interaction with natural and prop genic systems.
The Minister stated “In this context, the UNESCO IHP is a scientific cooperation programme with primary goal of supporting member states to implement sustainable water management,”.
Dapaah expressed some concern that Ghana’s water resources situation had shown a depletion and degradation of some freshwater resources.
She added this is as a result of the increase in human settlement, rapid urbanization, poor agricultural practices, illegal mining and uncontrolled logging activities.
Adding that the situation had also increased pollution of the water bodies and set a heavy demand on water leading to conflicting water uses.
She stressed that, at the trans-boundary level, the main issues were; trans-boundary pollution, accidental flooding, spills from upstream reservoirs, and protection of local communities as well as existing and future investments.
She called on all stakeholders to do more in their collective efforts to protect and sustain the water resources.
“The Ghana Committee for UNESCO IHP which has been dormant for some time, and it’s revival is a critical component of the country’s water governance framework. It is the institutional focal body, which will serve as an advisory body for the government on UNESCO IHP while providing inputs to shape national research and policies on hydrological issues in Ghana.
The Minister charged the Committee members to undertake their work by pursuing the process of consensus-building through effective participation and improving partnership among the member institutions.