The Water Resources Commission is calling for a deliberate policy on behavioural change that subscribes to the use of nature based solutions for challenges with water resources
Mr Benjamin Ampomah, Executive Secretary of the Water Resources Commission said usually the first thing that comes to mind when there is a flood or a water related challenge is to call for the construction of drainages and infrastructure
He however said the use of infrastructure may not be the best of solutions for water related challenges such as floods.
“Using nature such as the availability of wetlands or the creation of wetlands in many cases could be used to solve such water related challenges,” Mr Ampomah said at a workshop to expatiate further on the theme: “Nature for Water”.
He noted that not all water challenges could be solved using nature, saying, connecting communities to a water sources had no natural way to do, but to use pipelines.
“There is the need to combine both green infrastructure and grey infrastructure for effective water solutions.”
Mr Ampomah said to get people to look at green infrastructure which was the natural way to solving water challenges, government needed to look at ways of compensating people for not doing the wrong thing.
He said people needed to be encouraged to use green grass instead of pavement blocks in their house and noted that using green grass preserved the water table and created wetlands while the use of pavement blocks did not.
He also called for an effective inter-sectoral approach where lead institutions were appointed to oversee the various approaches on solving water challenges
Mr Atta Arhin, Coordinator of the Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS) who gave an overview of the water situation in Ghana said investment in the water sector was low and investment in the water sector by government was less than one per cent and called for an increase.
He said Ghana could not tackle development issues effectively without addressing challenges in the water sector.