The process of mainstreaming water security started at WACDEP project preparation stage in 2013 through 2014. Firstly, the CWP-Ghana Steering Committee (SC) was expanded to include NDPC, and the Ministries of Sanitation and Water Resources (then MWRWH) and Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD). The expanded SC was referred to as WACDEP Technical Working Group (TWG) to oversee WACDEP implementation. This step provided a platform for institutional engagement, building bridges for common understanding, and enabled definition of the entry points for water security mainstreaming into national development planning framework.
Next, the WACDEP TWG undertook a study, “Review of National Policies, Strategies and Programmes in the context of Water Security and Climate Resilience” to provide the project partners insight into strategic frameworks for water security implementation in the water, food, energy and environment sectors.
Following the study, the NDPC, WRC and CWP-Ghana jointly harnessed information in the report, among others to produce the document, «Screening for water security in national development planning». This document sought to enrich engagement with MMDAs, providing pathways to mainstream water security into the MTDP, and to screen interventions for implementation.
The next stage was to engage planning and budgeting officers at Regional and District Coordinating and Planning Units at the regional level across the country on the “Screening for water security in national development planning” document. The then ten (10) regions were grouped into two (2) zones, A and B. Zone A comprised of Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Brong Ahafo and Ashanti Regions. Zone B encompassed of Eastern, Volta, Central, Western and Greater Accra Regions. This arrangement with concurrent implementation required two sets of facilitators, necessitating WRC and CWP-Ghana to collaborate to make up for the teams. CWP-Ghana, WRC Basin Officers (Ankobra and White Volta basins) and NDPC jointly carried out a nation-wide technical backstopping campaign 216 MMDAs and 10 Regional Coordinating Councils mainstream water security into the MTDP of the DAs while ensuring their resilience to climate variability and change.
GWP/CWP engagement with NDPC resulted in inclusion of water security as a cross-cutting theme in the Guidelines to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and MMDAs during the 2014-2017 planning cycle. Accordingly, CWP used a blend of planning tools to respond to the water security issues relating to the different water uses and economic sectors. For instance, a water security issue is dealing with industrial and agro practices that are damaging water resources and ecosystems and creating ecological processes that are not easily reversible. An example is the hitherto unregulated activities of small-scale miners, which is largely concentrated in the southwestern river system. Water quality analysis carried out in 2016 revealed that 61% of the main rivers were of poor ambient water quality of which 15% were in critical condition.
This has been largely responsible for the deterioration in the quality of some rivers and water bodies, thereby affecting the provision of clean and safe water for the population and for agriculture production; and loss of habitat for aquatic life, among others. However, the institution of targeted planning regulation and enforcement tools contributed to improve the condition of water bodies. By the end of 2018, the poor ambient quality status of rivers had dropped by 14%, suggesting that 53% of rivers had good ambient water quality. The “fight” against illegal mining in rivers and streams is critical and remains a key measure that has contributed to the gains made.