WORKSHOP ON VOLTA BASIN HELD AT BOLGA (PAGE 40)

THE White Volta Basin Secretariat of the Water Recourses Commission, in collaboration with the Challenge Programme, has held a joint workshop to deliberate on research findings on three of its projects in the Volta Basin.
The projects, sponsored by the International Challenge Programme for Water and Food, was aimed at informing the White Volta Basin Board and other organisations working in the region to better manage water resources.
The first project, which investigated how local water management strategies could strengthen trans-boundary institutions, highlighted the role that customary institutions for water resources management played in Ghana and Burkina Faso.
The second project, which examined how simulation models could be used to improve integrated agriculture and water resources, showed that irrigated agriculture had unrealised potential to reduce poverty in the region.
The report, however, stated that there were still considerable challenges, such as access to credit and well-maintained infrastructure.
The third project, which developed various tools for the planning, management, design and use of small reservoirs, found that careful citing of reservoirs would make it possible to use the region's full hydrological potential.
Commenting on the findings, the White Volta Basin Officer, Mr Aaron Aduna, stated that water was very key to poverty reduction.
He, therefore, appealed to all stakeholders to protect the basin and desist from disposing untreated human and solid waste into it.