AN EXAMINATION OF INDIGENOUS WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT KNOWLEDGE (CASE STUDY OF UPPER TANO RIVER BASIN, GHANA)
Chapter One
Preface
Background Of The Study
Water resource operation has acquired elevation in global development conversations throughout the times. Water is needed for the survival of humans and all other living effects. It has a wide range of operations. It’s employed for artificial, ménage, and irrigation reasons, for illustration, and society receives a variety of benefits from it( FAO, 2009). Water is a critical element of mortal development and a crosscutting concern in ultramodern development objects driving worldwide sweats to achieve sustainable development pretensions, due to its multitudinous circumstances, operation, and uses.
This is reflected in Sustainable Development thing( SDG) six( 6), which aims to guarantee universal access to and sustainable operation of water and sanitation. According to the World Commission on Environment and Development( WECD)( 1987), sustainable development is defined as development that aims to fulfill current requirements and intentions without risking unborn generations’ capability to meet their own. guarding water coffers and enhancing water services are critical for perfecting hygiene and sanitation norms, which have an impact on people’s capability to work productively. likewise, an effective and reliable sanitation and water force system is critical for lowering morbidity and mortality, as well as avoiding vector and water- borne ails( United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2009).
Water’s significance for life’s aliment has been honored for decades. Indigenous peoples have acquired an expansive body of knowledge for sustainable use and operation of natural coffers similar as gutters and aqueducts over the times as guardians of natural coffers and as a result of centuries of trial. Rules and belief systems that constituted pieces of their customary laws were used to insure the durability of this knowledge and the long- term operation of these coffers( Gadgil, 2005). Indigenous peoples had a methodical understanding of how to manage shops, creatures, and natural circumstances in ecosystems and their surroundings. When colonialism, technology, and population expansion passed, and their lands and homes were taken over, a process of resource sacking and privation began( Henrik, 1996).
These customary laws that governed the operation of their moxie to the operation of natural coffers within their home were marginalized by the arrival of statutory laws( Opoku- Ankomah, Amposah & Some, 2006). With the appearance of the age of profitable development, which was roundly pushed by private enterprises, the situation worsened throughout the decades. As a result, colorful sweats at conferences have contributed to the progress of water policy problems throughout the times. The Lake Success Conference on Resource Conservation and Application in 1949; the Mar Del Plata Conference in 1977; the United Nations Conference on the mortal terrain in 1972; the International Conference on Water and Environment in Dublin in 1992, where the Dublin Principles were developed; and the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 are all exemplifications of similar enterprise.
The International Conference on Freshwater in Bonn in 2001; the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002; and the Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth World Water Forums in Kyoto, Mexico, Istanbul, Marseille, and Daegu- Gyeongbuk in 2003, 2006, 2009, and 2012, 2015, independently, are exemplifications of recent conferences. The creation of an Integrated Water coffers Management( IWRM) strategy and other water resource operation generalities surfaced from these conferences, summits, and forums. These generalities and ideas have been accepted by the transnational community and have been argued to be important instruments for managing global water coffers.
In Africa, there are several water coffers. Lake Victoria, the Niger River, and the Volta River are just a many exemplifications. The vacuity of fresh water is critical to Africa’s growth. nevertheless, according to the World Health Organization( WHO)( 2014), Africa reckoned for further than 40 of all people without access to safe drinking water, with 300,000 people deprived of clean water sources owing to hamstrung water resource operation. According to Freitas( 2013), adding strain on Africa’s water coffers might beget internal insecurity, worsen currentinter-state pressures, and conceivably serve as a source of fortified conflict.
Water impurity, according to Prüss- Üstün, Bos, Gore, and Bartram( 2008), might do if water sources, similar as swash basins, aren’t adequately managed. According to Prüss- Üstün etal., unsafe and polluted water use in Africa might affect in wide typhoid, dysentery, and other ails. piecemeal from the impact on health, Prüss- Üstün etal.,( 2008) refocused out that the loss of product caused by water- related conditions stymies the mainland’s growth. According to the World Health Organization( WHO), population growth in numerous African nations was high each time, comprising2.5 percent acrossSub-Saharan Africa, but lack of safe drinking water and sanitation braked profitable growth to double that pace.
The World Wide Fund for Nature( 2014) claimed that attaining sustainable development and effective water operation in Africa demanded representative engagement from all those who stand to profit or suffer, as well as consideration of water timing, quality, and biodiversity. Mondello( 2006) also recommended that the Integrated Water Resource Management( IWRM) and other solid programs be enforced in the future to insure the sustainability and effectiveness of water operation. This was to be fulfilled by taking the following way establishing multinational swash receptacle operation authorities for further than half of Africa’s eighty- eight trans- boundary gutters and lakes; developing public plans for the operation and wise use of washes; and conserving 50 million hectares of brackish washes to support original people’s livelihoods.
As a result, a number of African nations have accepted water sector reforms. The Okavango Basin Management Board, established to address trans- boundary water issues in Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, and the Nyando Basin Management Board, established in Kenya, are two exemplifications. Biswas( 2008), still, claims that the preface of formal programs similar as the IWRM plan and other principles has not entirely canceled difficulties connected with the operation of water coffers in Africa.
Ghana has abundant water coffers, including gutters like the Volta, Densu, Pra, Tano, and Ankobra. Ghana espoused formal water programs that informed new programs and enactments similar as the Water coffers Commission( WRC) Act 522 of 1996 for swash receptacle plans, which was followed by the National Water Policy of June 2007 in which all stakeholders were anticipated to be brought on board as far as swash receptacle operation in Ghana was concerned. According to WRC( 2012), the preface of the IWRM at decentralized situations in named swash basins was necessary due to factors similar as tilling conditioning along swash banks inching on water chalet zones; water dearths in an else imperishable swash system caused by an accelerating increase in irrigation demand; and the construction of multitudinous lower heads and dug- outs in the highlands( WRC, 2012).
likewise, the IWRM was supposed necessary for managing Ghana’s brackish coffers. In Ghana, numerous IWRM fabrics have been developed for distinct basins. IWRM plans for the Densu River Basin, for illustration, were completed in 2007, followed by those for the White Volta, Ankobra, Pra, and Tano River Basins. still, as Biswas( 2008) argues, the perpetration of these formal regulations in Ghana’s water operation has not fully remedied the country’s water operation challenges( Millar, 2005). It was allowed that if formal associations were charged with managing water coffers and these principles were followed, a result might be set up. nevertheless, indeed under the supervision of these sanctioned associations, pollution and biodiversity loss continue to rise( Bonye, 2008).
On a razor-thin periphery, indigenous peoples continue to emphasize and exercise their own way of life and worldviews. pastoral communities in Ghana’s Volta receptacle, for illustration, used adaptable institutional fabrics to conserve natural coffers, including taboos and other artistic practices, according to Opoku- Ankomah etal.( 2006). Indigenous knowledge is gaining traction as a tool that the global community may use to address current and unborn food and health security issues( Reed, 1997). In a analogous spirit, there’s a growing recognition of the critical part that indigenous knowledge and customary rules may play in icing the earth’s health( Boelens, Chiba, & Nakashima, 2006). The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples( UNDRIP) and the Convention on Biodiversity, for illustration, fete the significance of indigenous knowledge in the development and conservation dockets( CBD). Henrik( 1996) credited current shy natural resource operation to invasive state programs that allegedly obtruded too important on the original scene and damaged traditional institutions’ capability to regulate resource operation.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The Tano Basin is a major swash receptacle in Ghana’s south- western swash system. It runs through the BrongAhafo, Ashanti, and Western Regions and serves a variety of socio- profitable places, including furnishing one of the most dependable inventories of water for ménage, artificial, and agrarian uses in the BrongAhafo Region and other areas through which it passes. In a 2011 study on water coffers in the BrongAhafo Region, the Environmental Protection Agency( EPA) noted that water quality was excellent, but that conditioning like as poor agrarian practices might have an impact on water coffers if not managed rightly. The IWRM plan was developed in 2012 in response to clashing demands for water, with the thing of easing wide stakeholder participation in order to foster concession and fair access.
The Water Resource Commission’s study on the Tano receptacle in 2014 verified to the fact that mortal conditioning along the Tano swash were placing the Tano Basin in jeopardy, which might have ramifications on the lives of numerous who calculate on it for a living. Legal and lawless gold and other mineral mining, as well as complexion and beach mining, are crucial enterprises impacting the Tano Basin, according to a 2014 assessment by the Water Resource Commission. husbandry and tree slice in the buffer zone, as well as mortal- erected structures, were honored as conditioning that have an impact on the receptacle. shy water to fulfill demand for ménage, marketable, agrarian, and artificial uses was mentioned as a possible outgrowth if way to check similar conditioning aren’t enforced. nevertheless, Haverkort, Van’t Hooft, and Hiemstra( 2003) proposed the Endogenous Development system, which suggested that the application of original coffers, similar as mortal coffers, leadership, and institutions, may be effective instruments for diving development issues. As a result, the thing of this study was to see how indigenous knowledge is being used to water resource operation in the upper Tano swash receptacle.
Ideal Of The Study
The primary end of this study is to examine indigenous water resource operation knowledge in the upper Tano River Basin in Ghana, therefore, the following objects;
1. Describe the forms of indigenous knowledge used in operation of water coffers.
2. Examine the indigenous practices that was in the operation of water coffers in the communities.
4. Describe the challenges faced by indigenous institutions in using indigenous knowledge to manage water coffers in the communities.
3. Make applicable recommendations on the need to incorporate indigenous knowledge in receptacle operation programs.
Exploration Questions
The following questions guide this study;
1. What are the forms of indigenous knowledge used in operation of water coffers?
2. What are the indigenous practices that was in the operation of water coffers in the communities?
4. What are the challenges faced by indigenous institutions in using indigenous knowledge to manage water coffers in the communities?
3. What are the applicable recommendations on the need to incorporate indigenous knowledge in receptacle operation programs?
Significance Of The Study
Poor water coffers operation has given rise to a number of problems in relation to health, socio- profitable development and environmental operation, which need to be answered( Dungumaro & Madulu, 2003). This study will produce mindfulness on the issue of poor water operation and its goods on health and other sectors of the frugality. It’ll allow for the government and the individualities to take proper way towards better applicable water operation not just in the Tano River Basin but also other areas. This study will also be significant as it’ll produce further accoutrements for other scholars or experimenters looking to foster the subject matter or take over the study from a different perspective.
Compass Of The Study
The study looked at the forms of indigenous values and knowledge and how they fit into water and related coffers operation programs and laws. It was confined to riparian communities along the upper Tano River in the BrongAhafo Region of Ghana. This exploration sought to describe the community’s morals and practices as well as how these practices impact on water coffers operation in the upper Tano receptacle.
Limitation Of The Study
This study will be limited to the riparian communities along the upper Tano River in the BrongAhafo Region of Ghana. The findings of this study will be limited to this region, still, the recommendations and findings may be applicable to other regions as it relates to the proper operation of water coffers.
Description Of Terms
1. WATER RESOURCE Water coffers are natural coffers of water that are potentially useful as a source of water force.
2. operation the process of dealing with or controlling effects or people. In this case, it refers to the operation of the conduct of people towards water coffers.
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