By Nicholas Osei Wusu
For the Government of Ghana, it is a source of revenue generation. The Chiefs of Asanteman see it as part of their heritage. The 22 communities encircling it consider it their main source of livelihood and protein needs, whereas UNESCO, a UN Agency, deems it as a biosphere reserve site worthy of protection for the promotion of a healthy balance between biodiversity and sustainable management of the natural resource.
However, GBC’s Nicholas Osei-Wusu, who has been monitoring keenly development of Ghana’s biggest natural lake, Lake Bosomtwe, reports that the incessant complaint by its catchment communities in recent times about the future of the lake and its aquatic life has been confirmed through a scientific study, proving further that the number of fish species has substantially dropped from 11 in 1975 to five currently of which number, only two are predominantly available for catch. And for the causative factors, call it a cruel conspiracy among the devastating effects of Climate Change, over-exploitation and other unfriendly human activities and you cannot be wrong.
For the traditional authority of Asanteman, the 40 thousand-hectare biosphere reserve Lake Bosomtwe is part of their heritage in its over 400-year traceable history. It is linked to the expedition of a prolific hunter, Opanin Bompeh, whose shot antelope escaped into a pool of water in the forest, giving the hunter a suspicion that the animal was a water god, leading to the christening of the lake after the pool and the animal, thus Bosomtwe. Years later, scientists claim that a crater within the pool’s location widened it into Ghana’s current largest natural lake, which has been jealously preserved to this day and is largely sustained by several streams as its tributaries. Many people have been traveling from abroad and across Ghana just to see this natural endowment, making it one of the key revenue-generating sources for the Bosomtwe District Assembly, the local government authority that has direct management responsibility of it. The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in 2016 designated the lake as a World Heritage Site to promote a healthy balance between biodiversity and sustainable management of the natural resource. Besides these attributes, Lake Bosomtwe has for many years faithfully served its 22 catchment communities with diverse socio-economic benefits, key among which is fishing for household income and protein needs. But in recent times, there has been increasing alarm by people, including fisher folk like Akwasi Peter of Adwafo, one of the fringe villages who has been fishing for the past 30 years, that they are fast losing their means of livelihood.
Available official records prove that over the period, studies on the lake have been only patchy and intermittent, which have not helped to give the real detailed situation of the state of the natural resource and its aquatic life. But, in 2018, a team of Ghanaian and foreign scientists comprising Professors and PhDcandidatess launched a two-year comprehensive study into the prevailing affairs of the lake, the first in 50 years. The team was made up of Professors at the University of Energy and Natural Resources in Sunyani, University of Ghana, Legon, and partners from Denmark and Germany with funding by DANIDA. One of the PhD Candidate-members of the Study Team, Amos Asaase, shared with me some aspects of the research. He touched first on the scope and activities involved in the study.
Authoritatively, it can be reported that the number of fish species in Ghana’s biggest natural lake is reducing at an alarming and unsustainable rate, dropping from 11 to five since 1975 and that even with the available species, only two are predominantly available for the fisher folk. This has cost the 22 fringe communities their livelihood and protein needs because the fishing population has sharply declined from 80 percent to just 27 percent. The main contributory factors in this problem, according to Mr. Asaase, who is also a lecturer at the University of Energy and Natural Resources, are climate change and over-exploitation of the fish stock.
According to Mr. Asaase, the study, whose final report is to be published soon, has revealed that climate change and over-exploitation of the fish stock have contributed to the unsustainable depletion rate of the fish stock in the lake, which has remained as the mainstay of the communities for years.
But, it is not all doom and gloom as all stakeholders; local Assembly, traditional authority, beneficiary communities, fisherfolk, Ghana Tourism Authority, and even the media must make concerted efforts to develop and implement pragmatic strategies as initiative by the Asantehene to not only to save what is left but restore this major natural resource of international stature toward protecting the livelihood of the many individuals, homes, and communities that continue to depend on it.
