Communities protecting water resources

The Kumasi peri-urban area is characterised by high rates of conversion of agricultural land to private housing. Kumasi, Ghana, is also situated across a major drainage divide, resulting in a range of water quality and supply problems. Collaborative DFID-funded research by Royal Holloway, University of London, with government and NGO partners in Ghana, aims to develop and pilot a sustainable co-management approach to peri-urban watersheds.

Surveys of water quality showed a clear pattern of pollution, with human waste contamination present within a very short distance of source and with progressively greater organic and inorganic pollution downstream through the city area. Surveys indicated that women bear the primary responsibility for domestic water collection, yet are seldom directly involved in village decisions.

The communities identified the following problems:

• inadequate drinking water, toilets and sanitation
• poorly sited or maintained refuse dumps
• soil erosion and sand extraction
• encroachment on water courses
• institutional weaknesses.

There was a lack of understanding that many of these problems were interlinked, or that actions taken in one part of the catchment would have repercussions elsewhere. A watershed-scale approach to environmental management was therefore proposed as the best way forward:

Get the message across to communities The key message was that putting in more boreholes is expensive and not necessarily a long-term solution, as very few of the peri-urban communities had adequate resources and some were struggling to maintain those that already existed. It made more sense to protect and better use existing water resources, with an emphasis on managing the whole catchment.

Start with children To test the feasibility of a system of environmental self-monitoring, simple water quality test kits were given to schools to collect data. Students and teachers also carried out environmental awareness-raising in schools and their villages.

Disseminate good practice All stakeholders were encouraged to participate in the development of a manual of 'best practice' for use by village committees. The manual addresses methods and rules for:

• catchment surface and water resource protection
• land use criteria and land allocation procedures
• environmental self-monitoring
• stakeholder involvement
• consultation protocols for reporting environmental problems
• identification of sources of funding for microprojects.

Duncan McGregor
Centre for Developing Areas Research (CEDAR)
Department of Geography
Royal Holloway
University of London
Egham
Surrey TW20 0EX
UK

T +44 (0) 178 444 3573

d.mcgregor@rhul.ac.uk

See also
Discussion papers from: http://www.gg.rhbnc.ac.uk/kumasi/

Views expressed on these pages are not necessarily those of DFID, IDS, id21 or other contributing institutions. Copyright remains with the original authors but (unless stated otherwise) articles may be copied or quoted without restriction, provided id21 and originating author(s) and institution(s) are acknowledged. Copyright © 2005 id21. All rights reserved.