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Second phase of programme to improve rainwater management launched

02.06.2011 LISTEN
By GNA

Accra, June 1, GNA - The second phase of the Challenge Programme on Water and Food (CPWF) in the Volta Basin was launched on Wednesday to improve rainwater management which has the potential to reduce vulnerability of the poor.

The first phase of the programme started in 2003 and ended in 2008 while the second phase was scheduled for 2009 to 2014.

The Volta Basin lies predominantly in Ghana and Burkina Faso with small areas in Benin, Cote D'Ivoire, Mali and Togo.

It is being inhabited by 19 million people, 70 per cent of whom are rural economies and reliant on rainfall agriculture varying between 500-1100 mm per year.

Giving an overview of the programme at a workshop in Accra, Dr Olufunke Cofie, CPWF Volta Basin Leader said the workshop was to use water management to contribute to poverty reduction and improved livelihood, resilience and take account of implications for downstream and upstream water users including ecosystem services.

She said highly variable rainfall during growing season present problems of short season drought, even where total rainfall appeared adequate.

It was for these reasons that the workshop was being organised to improve rainwater and small reservoir management harvest and manage rain water for use during the dry season.

Dr Cofie indicated that a large number of small reservoirs had been developed and these reservoirs served multiple purposes including domestic water supply, livestock, small scale irrigation and limited agriculture.

These reservoirs are common property resources which help communities to buffer themselves against intense dry season but often failed due to poor institutional and technical mechanisms required to build, maintain and sustain for social equitable benefits.

She noted that research in the basin from 2010 to 2013 would explore the institutional and technical aspects of small reservoir development and maintenance, embedded within a wider rainwater management system for the Volta river basin.

“If the research is successful the community level would be able to manage and maintain small reservoir to maximise the benefit from multiple government and development agencies would be able to make evidence based investment in small reservoirs for multiple uses.

“The objective of the integrated management of small reservoirs for multiple uses would improve water quality for various uses reaching and enhancing water productivity potential to ensure an equitable allocation of water resources,” Dr Cofie added.

Ms Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, in a speech read on her behalf, said the workshop provided new partnerships that would help improve the lives of people in and around the basin and also fit into government's Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) programme.

She said government would continue to sustain research activities and assured the CPWF of government's support in their quest to help farmers increase productivity especially at a time when issues of food security were critical.

Dr Abdulai Baba Salifu, Director General of Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), said it was unfortunate that enough rainwater could not be harvested and most was wasted at the end of the day.

He said the country's engineers should re-think and find ways of channelling rainwater to be harvested instead of placing culverts on the roads to divert water elsewhere.

Dr Salifu said CSIR had ample evidence to show how rainwater was harvested for other uses and bemoaned the situation where dams spilled water with no avenue to store it.

Dr Traore Hamidou, Representative of Burkina Faso Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, said Burkina Faso had five billion cubic meters of water but there was bad distribution of rainwater.

He noted that a programme that sought to improve water management and improve livelihood was commendable.

Experts say if the research was successful a decision support tool would be available to guide the out scaling of successful agriculture water management interventions in appropriate locations and help government and development agencies make evidence-based investment in small reservoirs for multiple uses.

GNA

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