Towards sustainable utilisation of water resources: a comprehensive analysis of Ghana’s National Water Policy
Towards sustainable utilisation of water resources: a comprehensive analysis of Ghana’s National Water Policy
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Date
2017
Authors
Monney, Isaac
Ocloo, Kafui
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Abstract
In the years ahead, meeting the challenges of food security in a water scarce world will require drastic changes
in the way water resources are managed. Accordingly, Ghana’s water sector has seen tremendous changes over the
years culminating in the 2007 National Water Policy. This paper evaluates the policy to highlight its strengths and
weaknesses, to inform possible future review and guide new policy development in developing countries or trou bleshoot existing policies. It draws on a framework based on three thematic areas distilled from global water policy
development guidelines. Using a 3-point Likert scale, sub-thematic components are ranked and used to quantitat ively compute the theme-specific scores (TSS) and the overall performance (OP) of the policy. Per the study
findings, cross-cutting water policy issues including integrated water resources management, climate change adap tation and gender mainstreaming are more highlighted (TSS ¼ 67%) than country-specific water management
issues (TSS ¼ 50%). Specifically, the policy neglects key national issues including protection of coastal regions
from the onslaught of sea waves, and water resource protection against oil spills, and its institutional framework
for implementation excludes key sector institutions. Generally, the policy addresses most pertinent issues in the
water sector (OP ¼ 64%) and areas for improvement are further discussed in the paper.
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Monney, I., & Ocloo, K. (2017). Towards sustainable utilisation of water resources: a comprehensive analysis of Ghana's National Water Policy. Water Policy, 19(3), 377-389.