Access to potable water is important for human development but inhabitants of mountainous areas face challenges of water supply due to inadequacy of the available surface water. Groundwater thus becomes the other alternative. The research was done on the groundwater quality with respect to colouration in five boreholes in some second cycle schools located in mountainous areas of the Akuapim North district. Four samples each were taken from the five boreholes for laboratory analysis. Colour, iron, manganese and some physical parameters were analysed and the results were compared with the World Health Organisation guidelines and the Ghana Urban Water Limited standard for drinking water. The results showed that conductivity and turbidity were all within the acceptable standards for drinking water. Colour strongly correlated positively with iron (r = 0.869), turbidity (r = 0.858), conductivity (r = 0.727) and manganese (r = 0.681), but pH (r = -0.715) strongly correlated negatively. Even though iron and manganese have no known health effects, they were associated with the colouration of the groundwater causing aesthetic problems for the users of the boreholes. Construction of a simple filter bed with aeration facility is critical to remove iron and manganese from the water to make it potable to the consumers.
The rate of agricultural land conversion in peri-urban communities due to peri-urbanisation and inefficient use of agricultural lands has raised concerns at both local and global levels. This paper surveys the literature and synthesises the key arguments for and against peri-urbanisation. A review of the literature demonstrates that the focal arguments focus on employment, diversification and intensification of agriculture, cash-income activities, livestock rearing, access to goods and services, unsanitary conditions, social vices, weakening social relations, deforestation, high cost of living, and out-migration. We conclude that peri-urbanisation brings about the betterment of living conditions and at the same time displaces local livelihoods, while breeding poverty for local residents. Hence, we recommend the design and implementation of policies that will secure agriculture lands, while promoting urban activities to enable farmer households to cultivate their land and at the same time engage with the new urban opportunities.
Water law in most developing countries is shaped by a combination of global and local influences that have taken place throughout the centuries. This article examines the evolution of water law in Ghana from pre‐colonial through colonial to current times. It discusses the issues of legal pluralism and how the dynamics of internal law making are influenced by colonial practices and, in the post‐colonial era, through aid agencies and international agreements. In this evolutionary history, it focuses in particular on how access to water and sanitation services has been arranged. As can be seen, Ghana has taken a pragmatic approach, prioritizing the issue but not going so far as to recognize a right to water. Instead, it has adopted cost‐recovery as an integral part of the integrated water resources management approach. A critical question for the future will be how Ghana reconciles the global adoption of the right to water and sanitation in 2010, and its political acceptance of this right at the UN General Assembly, with its domestic policy making and implementation process.
Four major paradigm shifts in water management include the shift from: government to governance, centralization to decentralization, water as a gift of God to water as an economic good, and sectoral to integrated water resource management. Are these paradigm shifts compatible with cultural/institutional practices in Ghana? Using theoretical and empirical arguments, this paper affirms that Ghana often adopts such paradigm shifts due to exogenous pressures but the absence of domestic ownership, inadequate resources, and institutional mismatches, often result in limited implementation. This paper recommends water governance which focuses more on prioritization, indigenizing exogenous ideas, and working within existing cultural practices.
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