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Ghana is on the verge of becoming a water scarce country, Dr. Bob Alfa, Principal Surface Water Resources Engineer at the Water Resources Commission (WRC) has said in Wa.

He said right now, Ghana is economically water scarce resources country and needed to manage its water resources sustainably.

The WRC Engineer said Ghana has no sufficient resources to develop its water resources; allowing 80 percent of water in the rainy season to go waste and sometimes causing devastation to farms and communities.

Dr. Alfa who made these known at stakeholder Workshop on the establishment of the Black Volta Basin Governing Structure, said 84 percent of water in the White Volta River also evaporates.

The remaining 16 percent flows through the river channels to Akosombo and into the ground water, which Ghana is constrained with resources to develop.

Managing the 16 per cent needs integrated approach to ensure proper management, which includes reduction in pollution deforestation, siltation and illegal mining activities among others.

The stakeholders were drawn from Brong-Ahafo, Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions to validate and prioritise the water resources management issues in the basin.

The participants also developed an action plan based on the prioritised water resources management challenge in the basin; recommend for nomination stakeholder institutions to form the Black Volta Basin Board.

Dr. Alfa said there is so much competition in the use of Black Volta River Basin in irrigation and hydro power development while environmental impact on the river is also great since its main sources are not coming from Ghana.

“Ghana needs to manage its water in a way that the ecosystems would be functioning and with sustainable environment in the Black Volta River Basin,” Dr. Alfa said.

He said siltation as a result of the activities of illegal miners and deforestation pressures on ecosystems at the catchment areas puts danger on the Bui Dam.

Mr. Aaron Aduna, Upper East Regional Director of the Commission called for collaborative management of water resources among the traditional authorities, assembly members and regulatory institutions to reduce incidents of water pollution, deforestation, siltation and illegal mining activities.

He appealed to the media to help in the education of the people to refrain from activities which are detrimental to water sources and ecosystems.

Ghana total water resources is about 54.4 billion milligrams and consumptive water demand for 2020 projected to be about 20 per cent of the surface water resources.