Environmentalists have cautioned that Ghana stands a great risk of losing its water bodies to water weeds, especially, the lower Volta in 10 years time, if nothing is done about the “invasive water weeds” on the surface of the country’s river bodies.
According to the environmentalists, the country is gradually losing its rivers to the water weeds. It was in this wise that they called for an urgent attention to the situation. The plants (water weeds) which are growing in our rivers and streams grow with such speed so much that with time the water bodies can no longer be used for activities such as, navigation, irrigation and fishing which are major sources of revenue for people living along these river bodies.
They argued that the proliferation of the water weeds is not only affecting the aquatic ecosystems, but also causing a significant disruption in the socio-economic activities of communities who live along these rivers.
Ms Sherry Aryittey, Minister for Environment, Science and Technology
The Principal Programme Officer of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Mr. Carl Fiati, described the invasive nature of the water weeds as “a threat to national security” that needs urgent attention, and called on Civil Society groups, stakeholders to come together to fight the water weed problem.
He said his outfit is having a hectic time in trying to manage the situation. According to him, out of a total of 700 hectors of aquatic weeds identified on the various river bodies in the country they have only been able to clear 150 hectors, adding that the situation poses a major challenge to the sustainable management of the country’s water resources.
Mr. Faiti stressed that the existence of the water weeds also create health problems, because they provide refuge and food for vectors of water-borne diseases like malaria, and bilharzias incidence also becomes very high as people wade through weeds infested water on several occasions.
He said in order to control the spread of the invasive aquatic weeds on the Tano and Volta rivers respectively; EPA has adopted several means some of which include the use of chemical poisons, use of weevils and the weed removal methods.
He explained that the good news is that the invasive water weeds which are harvested can be recycled into compost manure for crop production, and observed that, food crops cultivated with the compost water weeds manure taste better and natural than crops grown with fertilizers.
He therefore called on the private sector to get involved in the removal of the water weeds from the river bodies and not to leave it on communities along river bodies to do the removal of the invasive water weeds, since it is a problem for the entire country.
“By removing water weeds we also can make benefit out of the weeds,” he added.
BY ESI COBBINAH
