Mr Mark Woyongo, Upper East Regional Minister, at the weekend commended the management of the White Volta Basin Project, which is aimed at improving water governance in the White Volta Basin.
The Regional Minister made the commendation at the opening of a three-day workshop on: “The Learning Process of Climate Change Adaptive Capacities, - A Case of Ghana and Burkina Faso.”
Mr Woyongo stressed that the five-year project being implemented by the Water Resource Commission of Ghana and its Burkinabe
counterpart had made a lot of impact, including the restoration of the White Volta Basin.
He said with the provision of livelihoods empowerment programmes, communities along the White Volta Basin had stopped farming and
cutting trees near the river banks.
Mr Woyongo indicated that Ghana was one of the first African nations to sign the Copenhagen Accord and it was, therefore, incumbent
on the Governments of Ghana and Burkina Faso to work collaboratively to fight against the impact of Climate Change.
He indicated that the training programme on Climate Change would help build the capacity of the participants drawn from Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry Commission, Fire Service, District Chief Executives, Planners and Coordinating Directors to bring about a positive change.
He entreated all implementing partners to adhere to principles governing the programme so as to make significant impact on people’s lives.
The White Volta Basin Project Officer, Mr Aaron Aduna, explained that one of the objectives of the workshop was to review the activities undertaken so far since the project started and to seek input to enhance it.
Mr Joachim Abungba, Assistant Project Officer, indicated that the project would be expanded by providing about 3,000 seedlings and
supporting communities with more livelihoods programmes.
He stated that it would also involve technical institutions in the monitoring process and appealed to all stakeholders to get involved actively and submit their reports in time.