As part of preparations for the new venture, the WRC has held a stakeholders meeting of the White Volta Basin, on Integrated Water Resource Management activities (IWRM) in the Kpasenkpe Sub- Basin to deliberate on their work experiences that would help chart plans for interventions in the Gambaga Sub Basin.

The White Volta Basin spans from the Bawku West District, Talensi District, West Mamprusi Municipal, Gushegu District, Builsa South District, Sissala West, Kumbungu District and Central Gonga.

The meeting also served as training for the stakeholders within the catchment area, to help them participate in the IWRM plans for the Gambaga Sub- basin.

Some issues that were identified and discussed for the Gambaga Sub-Basin included open defecation, deforestation, Sand winning, mining, poverty, floods, water scarcity, indiscriminate disposal of waste and inadequate governance structure and conflicts.

Dr Bob Alfa, the Director of Planning at Water Resources Commission (WRC) and Country Coordinator in charge of Dam projects of the Blue Deal Authority, in an interview on sidelines of the programme, said the Blue Deal Water project aimed to impact on people across the globe with increased quality water access.

He indicated that starting on a small area approach at the Kpansenkpe Sub Basin helped the stakeholders realise how interventions worked and lessons learnt from mistakes were shared with the Gambaga Sub Basin.

“Some successes have been made and we don’t want to wait for the full impact of the Kpasenkpe Sub Basin’s interventions before we move on to the Gambaga Basin to replicate some of the activities.

“Every sub catchment is unique in terms of characteristics so we are looking at Kpasenkpe and then Gambaga , as some of the issues are similar and we will replicate some of the activities, find the problems and fashion out some of the solutions to start implementation, to improve on the lives of the people there too”, Dr Alfa said.

Speaking on commitment of stakeholders, he said the core of implementation of interventions dealt with District Assemblies (DAs) because issues identified were local problems which the WRC would have to provide technical support.

“We understand that the capacity of some of the assemblies is low and we have to support in capacity building to help the district Assemblies to solve the problems and implement the right strategies”.