In this article, I present some questions concerning the increasing water resource insecurity in Ghana and proffer arguments on the need to revolutionise our thoughts on how we value, manage and prioritise water.
However, many citizens are “already in Day Zero” due to the tragedy from water pollution (mostly through illegal mining), high cost of supplying urban water, increasing leakages in urban water mains and the increasing cost of accessing water.
Even in our urban areas, population growth, changing weather pattern and growing income inequality are threatening to overwhelm both the physical infrastructure and management systems that have previously provided for our water needs as a country.
It appears to me that, institutional stakeholders and the Ghanaian citizenry have not made conscious efforts to prioritise the value of water.
There is no need waiting for crisis to hit us before we act.
In the foregoing, for our dear country (Ghana) to avoid future apocalypse in water needs just like what Cape Town is going through, we should embrace efforts to value and prioritise water.
At the same time, we need the right science and water management policies.
The future for water management is now and everyone is required to help value and prioritise water before the country face a potential water war.
In the realm of this water insecurity in Ghana, the issue of “smart water” and valuation should take a centre stage.
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DOHA: Qatar Charity has drilled and rehabilitated 316 artesian and surface wells last year to provide safe drinking water to as many as 350,000 people in Somalia, which made 2017 the most abundant year yet in the field of water and sanitation.
Qatar Charity implemented these projects in needy and poor areas of Somalia to help those affected and underprivileged people cope with chronic and widespread drought and lessen the effects.
Qatar Charity pays a great attention towards providing safe drinkable water, as it is one of the main areas of its work, where it very actively works, especially in countries that have major problems in this vital aspect of life, such as Somalia where only a small percentage of the population has access to clean water, due to drought and drying up of springs, rivers and old wells, and fluctuation in rainfall seasons in general.
Drilling of these wells and the efforts of health awareness about sanitation carried out and made by Qatar Charity in Somalia, coincided with its ongoing relief operations in Somalia, which included the distribution of dry foodstuffs and potable water through tanks transporting water to remote areas.
Qatar Charity signed a cooperation and partnership agreement with the Government of the Federal Republic of Somalia at the end of last year in the capital Mogadishu, to organise the cooperation in the humanitarian and development fields.
Qatar Charity is keen to integrate its humanitarian and development efforts to respond to the basic needs of the Somali people and to serve the priorities of the Somali Government in the transition from the humanitarian response to supporting the development and the stability efforts in Somalia.
According to the agreement, the interventions of Qatar Charity will help the Somali Government bring about the sustainable development and will focus on a range of priorities including the provision of drinking water and taking the advantage of technology in this field to provide this service to the largest possible number of beneficiaries.
Qatar Charity and UNHCR have announced, through a partnership and cooperation agreement signed between them last October last year in Geneva, that they will work together on the reintegration of the Somali returnees, internally displaced persons and receiving communities through the construction and rehabilitation of the public infrastructure in the water sectors, in addition to education, shelter and sanitation, to benefit nearly 100,000 people.
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Regulatory reform proponents say rebuilding the nation’s water and power infrastructure could start with dismantling the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
In a Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans oversight hearing, members of congress discussed ways to improve hydropower and drinking water where NEPA came under fire for unnecessarily impeding development.
“Environmental reviews and the federal permitting process for infrastructure projects are at the center of the regulatory problem,” Bakst said.
“Unnecessary federal red tape does not protect species, eliminate water pollution, or provide cleaner air.
“It is encouraging that we now have an Administration [that] understands that federal permitting reform must be the first thing we address if we want to get serious about addressing our nation’s infrastructure needs,” Subcommittee Chairman Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., said.
“And yet, some of my colleagues across the aisle continue to bring these projects forward again and again, keeping the myth alive for zombie dam projects that have been kicked around for years.
It’s probably not the most productive way to move forward on water infrastructure.” Suggesting the time has come to turn away from hydropower development and focus on drinking water viability, Huffman advocated for investing in “21st century technologies” that would withstand climate change and drought.
Jonathan Nelson, policy director for the Community Water Center in Visalia, California, also stressed the need for water systems modernization that would facilitate access to safe clean and affordable drinking water for a growing population.
“Many of the communities we work with have lacked safe drinking water for years.
California drinking water needs alone are estimated over $5.2 billion over the next 20 years,” Nelson said.

Randall Hackley Behind barbed-wire fences at this camp in northern Jordan, about 33,000 Syrians—half of them children—exist uneasily, housed in rows of rudimentary shelters that barely protect them from the winter cold.
To help, non-governmental organizations supply water and relief groups visit to offer aid.
The UN said at least 82 water trucks a day fill the camp’s water tanks so that 950,000 liters of water a day can flow to some 76 taps.
Boreholes also provide 3.2 million liters of drinking water a day, giving camp residents access to about 20 liters a day, or 5 gallons per person.
Water and wastewater networks were constructed by the humanitarian group ACTED.
Play activities "help take their mind off things," Akbik said.
The Rohingya crisis even prompted a UN video that ended with a plea to better address the refugees’ urgent needs of clean water.
At the informal Rohingya camps in southeast Bangladesh, water pumps next to open sewers have stoked fear of disease outbreaks, and led to vaccination, clean water and sanitation drives.
The World Health Organization reports that diptheria is "rapidly spreading among Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar," a city in Bangladesh.
The Sahrawis have come a long way since eight years ago, when water was trucked in via UNHCR tankers and outhouses were crude holes beside mud-brick homes.

PARIS, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — PDAM Tirtanadi, the Water Corporation of the Province of North Sumatra has awarded SUEZ the contract for the extension of the drinking water production plant in Medan, the third largest city in Indonesia.
The extension of this BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) contract for a period of 25 years and EUR191 million, includes the funding, the building, the operation and the transfer of two additional water production units for the Medan plant.
This project will improve access to drinking water for the fast-growing population of the city of Medan and will contribute to local authorities’ goal of supplying more than 84% of the population with drinking water by 2020, as compared with 73.2% today.
With this contract, SUEZ is strengthening its presence in the water management industry in Indonesia, where the Group has built over 150 water production and sanitation plants since 1953.
With 90,000 people on the five continents, SUEZ is a world leader in smart and sustainable resource management.
It also secures water resources, delivering wastewater treatment services to 58 million people and reusing 882 million m3 of wastewater.
SUEZ in Asia SUEZ has been present for over 60 years in South East Asia and 40 years in Greater China in water and waste management.
With over 9,000 employees and over 60 water and waste projects with local partners, SUEZ is helping authorities and industries develop innovative solutions to address climate change and sustainable resource management.
The Group built over 420 water and wastewater treatment plants in Asia, supplying drinking water to 20 million people.
It is also the leader of waste management in Hong Kong and delivers its expertise in the management of environmental services to 11 industrial parks in Mainland China.

A 2017 study published by the World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund reported that three in 10 people around the world do not have access to clean and safe drinking water.
Once established on campus, the group will focus on educating students about the global water crisis and fundraising to improve access to clean drinking water.
Brendan Geen, the president of Charity: Water at BU and a junior majoring in business administration, said the organization could end up being a major fundraising group on campus.
“I think that Charity: Water at Binghamton University has the potential to become a cornerstone advocacy and fundraising organization that supports an underrepresented crisis happening around the world,” Geen wrote in an email.
While volunteering as a photojournalist in West Africa, Harrison experienced unsanitary conditions firsthand and realized the potential he had to make a difference, leading him to devote his life to water advocacy.
The nonprofit also constructs rainwater harvesting systems, which use gutters on rooftops to funnel rain into holding tanks, where it is stored before being used or consumed.
With efforts from Charity: Water, the water crisis in some countries has been seeing some positive responses, according to a 2015 UNICEF report.
Geen wrote that this event, along with others this semester and next fall, will be focused on advocacy and raising awareness for their group.
Other plans include a walk with a 40-pound container full of water — a simulation of the weight a person has to carry to bring back water in developing countries.
Maura Koszalka, a junior majoring in biology, attended the meeting and said she is interested in helping people all over the world.

AL AZRAQ REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan — Behind barbed-wire fences at this camp in northern Jordan, about 33,000 Syrians — half of them children — exist uneasily, housed in rows of rudimentary shelters that barely protect them from the winter cold.
As in Jordan, the world’s refugee crisis, which is intimately linked with water availability both in the homelands that people escape and in the camps where they find shelter, is large and growing.
Some 66 million people — a France-sized population — are displaced.
To help, non-governmental organizations supply water and relief groups visit to offer aid.
Azraq, 50 miles southeast, was built on unused desert land after Zaatari swelled beyond capacity just a year after opening, to more than 156,000 people.
Water and wastewater networks were constructed by the humanitarian group ACTED.
At the informal Rohingya camps in southeast Bangladesh, water pumps next to open sewers have stoked fear of disease outbreaks, and led to vaccination, clean water, and sanitation drives.
The World Health Organization reports that diptheria is “rapidly spreading among Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar,” a city in Bangladesh.
Six deaths were reported in December.
The Sahrawis have come a long way since eight years ago, when water was trucked in via UNHCR tankers and outhouses were crude holes beside mud-brick homes.

It also faces the problem of water pollution.
The city faced a similar drinking water shortage problem back in 2015.
Being a city of a country which is home to almost 20% of the world’s population, the city had around 140 cubic meters of fresh water for it’s more than 20 million population.
One of the major problems they faced was that of pollution.
Studies showed that almost 40% of the surface water in Beijing was so polluted that it could not be used for agriculture or industrial use.
Russia has almost 1/4th of the world’s fresh water reserves but is facing water crisis due to the industrial waste causing water pollution.
Since Moscow is 70% dependent on surface water, this is causing major problems in the city.
So, that rainwater is to be collected so as to use in the near future if a long spell of dry month happens.
London has a average rainfall of about 600mm, which means that the city gets almost 80% of its water supply from rivers.
Reports from Greater London Authority show that the city would face supply problems by 2025 and would face sever water crisis by 2040.

“Overall, this study informs a more directed approach to increasing compliance with drinking water quality regulations,” says author Maura Allaire, UC Irvine assistant professor of urban planning & public policy.
“Identifying hot spots and vulnerability factors associated with violations can allow public policies to target underperforming water systems.” While serious violations like those in the Flint, Michigan, crisis are rare, ensuring reliable access to safe drinking water poses challenges for communities across the country, according to a recent study led by the University of California, Irvine.
Researchers found that between 1982 and 2015, 9 million to 45 million people annually were affected by water quality issues — and that low-income, rural regions were most vulnerable.
Infractions were more numerous in “hot spots” in Texas, Oklahoma and Idaho, suggesting that these systems struggle with recurring problems.
Not all infractions pose immediate health concerns, but drinking water contaminants can cause short-term illnesses such as gastroenteritis, as well as chronic conditions including cancer and neurological disorders.
Identifying hot spots and vulnerability factors associated with violations indicates the types of communities that can benefit from greater regulatory oversight and assistance to help reduce quality issues, improve compliance and ensure safe drinking water across the nation.” Study results appear in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for the week of Feb. 12.
Compliance is associated with purchased water sources and private ownership.
Purchased water is supplied by wholesale agencies, which have greater resources to meet federal standards, while private utilities have considerable assets at stake should they deliver poor-quality water and subsequently face lawsuits or takeover by a municipal government.
“Public policies that target underperforming utilities include prioritization of technical guidance and financial support,” Allaire said.
And, where feasible, purchased water contracts and consolidation of systems could provide a way to achieve economies of scale for improved treatment technologies.” Haowei Wu, Upmanu Lall, and Alan and Carol Silberstein of Columbia University contributed to the project, which received a NatureNet Science Fellowship, a National Science Foundation award (No.

Here are 10 other cities that are most likely to run out of drinking water.
Photograph: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters On May 11, it is predicted that Cape Town in South Africa will face ‘Day Zero’ — the day when the major city will face the threat of running out of drinking water.
Photograph: Nacho Doce/Reuters Brazil’s financial capital went through a similar crisis to Cape Town in 2015 when its main reservoir fell below four per cent capacity.
In 2014, the Beijing’s 20 million inhabitants had only 145 cubic metres of fresh water per person (less than 1,000 per person is classified as water scarcity by the World Bank).
China is home to nearly 20 per cent of the world’s population but has only 7 per cent of the world’s fresh water.
The UN estimates critical shortages in the country by 2025.
Photograph: Beawiharta/Reuters According to World Bank estimates, 40 per cent of the Indonesian city lies below sea level.
Many only have running water for part of the day, while one in five get just a few hours from their taps a week.
10) Tokyo IMAGE: A drier-than-expected rainy season could lead to a drought, leading to water shortage in the megapolis.
Photograph: Yuya Shino/Reuters The Japanese capital’s rainfall is concentrated during four months of the year – making it hard to collect water.