Koforidua, June 30 GNA - A 17-member Densu Basin Board (DBB) mandated to evolve plans for the conservation, development and utilisation of water resources in the basin was inaugurated in Koforidua on Thursday.

Six districts within the basin, government ministries, religious bodies, non-governmental organisations, National Council on Women and Development (NCWD), traditional rulers, Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Forestry Commission, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and National Commission on Culture (NCC) were represented on the Board.

In a speech read on his behalf, Mr Paul Derigubaa, Chairman of the Water Resources Commission (WRC), said government was committed to initiate measures to prevent the degradation of the Densu Basin.

He said the board would be the institutional focal point of a basin-based planning approach for the sustainable implementation of measures to improve land use management, watershed rehabilitation and protection of buffer zones along the Densu River banks.

There would also be an improved management of liquid and solid waste from the towns and communities within the basin.

Mr Derigubaa requested the Board to register water users and grant water right, assist in monitoring and evaluating programmes for the utilisation and management of the water resources of the basin.

It is also expected to advise the WRC on issues that might negatively affect water resources in the basin.

He also urged the board to collaborate with water pollution control agencies towards the management and control of the pollution of water resources.

Mr Derigubaa told the board that its assignment would not be complete until the entire crisis that affected people that depended on the Densu had been addressed while water security was achieved.

He urged the board members to work in accordance with the guiding principles of integrated water resources management and vigorously pursue consensus building through effective participation among all users and mangers of water resources.

The Executive Secretary of the WRC, Mr Ben Ampomah, said the setting up and operations of the DBB was a clear indication that the process of building consensus through effective participation among interested parties had been successfully initiated and was auguring well.

The Board was sworn into office by the legal adviser of WRC, Mrs Bernadette Araba Adjei.

GNA