By Mark Smith.
Residents in the Wa Municipality are at risk of contracting waterborne diseases as most of the water sources for drinking and other daily activities are contaminated with faecal matter.
While water sourced directly from the Ghana Water Company Limited, (GWCL), is considered mostly safe for drinking, the water has serious quality problems. These findings were contained in a policy brief titled “Decentralized Urban Water Supply Services and Access to Water Under Urbanization in West Africa” under the LIRA Project.
Speaking at the launch of the Policy Document at Wa, the Acting Pro Vice Chancellor of the Simon Diedong Dombo University for Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS), Professor Emmanuel Derbile said there is a need for concerted effort in addressing the water quality problems in the Wa Municipality.
The LIRA Project is a two-year trans-disciplinary research initiative implemented from 2019 to 2021 in two West African Cities, Wa in Ghana and Niamey in Niger. The goal of the project is to explore how a multi-stakeholder management approach could improve the knowledge, awareness, attitudes and capacity for improving urban water supply and achieving inclusive water access for urban population.
In the Wa Municipality, the research was carried out under the auspices of the West African Centre for Sustainable Rural Transformation (WAC-SRT) at the SDD-UBIDS with support from the Wa Municipal Assembly, the Ghana Water Company Limited, CSOs and NGOs, the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority (LUPSA) amongst others.
Professor Derbile spoke about some of the findings of the research.
He pointed out the need to address the perennial issue of ensuring safe drinking water.
The Acting Pro Vice Chancellor of the SDD-UBIDS, Professor Derbile said the findings should be a source of worry for stakeholders thus the need for more collaborative efforts to address these challenges.
In Niamey, Niger, the study found that only water produced by the Niger Company of Water Exploitation (SEEN) had potable water in consonance with standards of the World Health Organization. The research in Niamey was conducted by the WAC-SRT centre in Niger headed by the University of Abdou Moumouni.
