The theme of World Water Day 2021 is “Valuing Water” and has been chosen to highlight the value of water in our daily lives. According to the UN, The value of water is about much more than its price – water has enormous and complex value for our households, food, culture, health, education, economics and the integrity of our natural environment.
It is a fact that …. Many of our rivers, lakes and streams have their sources from the forests.
As we celebrate World Water Day today, Otumfuo Osei Tutu ll and the Asante Kingdom Landscape Restoration Programme reiterate it’s efforts to restore our forest and save our water bodies.
Reduced vegetative cover along water bodies, coupled with increased pollution from domestic and in some cases industrial waste, has resulted in increased sediment and nutrient loading of streams, which, lead to deterioration in water quality of the natural water bodies.
To this end, The Asante Kingdom Landscape Restoration Programme’s partnership with the Water Resources Commission, EPA, Forestry commission and others will continue to work on education and the enforcing of buffer zone policy at Lake Bosomtwe, and the Owabi and Barekese Dams respectively. The ongoing forestry and agroforestry programme is on course to also plant 100million trees to restore degraded landscapes and protect our rivers and water bodies by 2029.
We marked this year’s celebration with a visit to Barekese dam which supplies 40 % of drinking water to Kumasi to provide education on proper farming practices around river bodies. There is a need to activate decisive action on people living around our water bodies to engage in healthy farming practices.
