The workshop was aimed at engaging stakeholders to participate in the development of IWRM plan with the use of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Tools, Sustainability test as well as Climate Change Compliance Test (CCC) to determine the feasibility of the plan.

Mr Ben Ampomah, Executive Secretary of the WRC speaking at the workshop held in Tamale at the weekend indicated that it was also aimed at ensuring that stakeholders reviewed and assessed the sustainability test for the final stage of the implementation of the IWRM plan.

He said it was also the commission's mandate to setup basin offices as well as the selection of a management board at the Oti basin to manage the water resources judiciously. Participants were drawn from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Forestry Commission, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP), the Water Research Institute, Ideological Service Department and representatives from the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) within the Oti basin.

The workshop was organised by WRC under the auspices of an adaptation project dubbed; “Increase Resilience to Climate Change in Northern Ghana through Management of Water Resources and Diversification of Livelihoods”.

The project is implemented to specifically enhance the resilience and the adaptive capacity of rural livelihoods to climate change impacts and risks on water resources in Northern Ghana.

As part of the implementation of the project activities, the project implementation Unit (PMU) undertook the SEA, which is to provide stakeholders with the platform to participate in the planning process of the IWRM.

The WRC, as part of its mandate to regulate and manage the utilisation of water resources in Ghana is collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) and the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) in the implementation of the adaptation project.