Water Resources Commission(WRC) trains Police Prosectors

Story: Benjamin Xornam Glover, Bolgatanga The Water Resources Commission(WRC) has organized a day’s training programme for police prosecutors on Integrated Water Resource Management and Water Laws and Regulations. The training which was attended by 30 police prosecutors selected from the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions, was organized to provide the relevant information to law enforcers with the view to equipping them with the relevant laws that govern the use and management of the White Volta basin. The Volta basin is the main and largest shared water resource between Ghana and Burkina Faso. The Water Resources Commission (WRC) was established by an Act of Parliament (Act 522 of 1996) as the overall body responsible for water resources management (governance) in Ghana. The commission is specifically to regulate and manage the utilization of water resources, and co-ordinate relevant government policies. Mr. Ben Ampomah, Executive Secretary of the Water Resources Commission (WRC) said in the past the commission has sought to embark on public education to sensitize people along the basin not to engage in acts that could pose a threat to the water resources. He said in a bid to help improve the shared responsibility for managing the resource, the commission thought it wise to build a partnership with the law enforcement officers and equip them with the relevant legal instrument for the management and use of the water body. “We have come to a point where we think that we have to bring in an element of enforcement to ensure the protection, conservation, restoration and rational use of water resources”, he said. Mrs. Bernadette Araba Adjei, Legal Officer of the WRC took the participants through the Water Resource Commission laws and regulations, Act 522 of 1996 and the Water Use Regulations 2001, LI 1692. She explained that among many other provisions, under Section 13 of Act 522, no person shall, divert, dam store abstract or use water resources or construct or maintain any works for the use of water resources except on accordance with the WRC Act. This, she explained is a crucial part of the Act that needs strict enforcement and therefore appealed for the cooperation of the police prosecutors in the effort to prosecute offenders of the Ghana’s water resources management laws. Resource persons at the workshop included Mrs. Adwoa Dako, Public Relation Officer of the Water Resource Commission and Mr. Aaron Aduna, White Volta Basin Officer. -End-