Barekese Dam under threat due to galamsey, others – GWCL

The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has described as worrying the alarming rate at which the vegetative cover meant to conserve the Barekese Dam is being destroyed.

Currently, about half of the 42.4 square kilometer vegetative land mass serving as a buffer zone for the Dam has encroached.

“This development poses a serious threat to the Dam as it has a high propensity to alter the hydrologic cycle,” Dr. Hanson Mensah-Akutteh, the GWCL Regional Chief Manager, Ashanti Production, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA).

The Barekese Reservoir, constructed across the Offin River, provides about 80 per cent of the total public pipe-borne water supplied to the Kumasi Metropolis and other parts of the Ashanti Region.

In recent years, the catchment area of the Dam has seen an increase in all manner of unsupervised human activities, resulting in a significant depletion of the forest cover.

They include farming, real estate development, illegal mining, solid and liquid waste disposal, uncontrolled use of fertilizers and pesticides.

Aside from the environmental consequences of the harmful practices, the GWCL said they could also lead to an increased cost of water treatment and production.

“In no time, we will not have the river at all, which means the reservoir is going to be defunct, and the treatment can cease.

“That is the alarming situation we are in now, and it is better we stop,” Dr. Mensah-Akutteh cautioned.

He said in a bid to conserve the water body, the Company had commenced an aggressive reforestation campaign, taking advantage of the Greening Ghana project to plant as many trees as possible.

The 2023 edition of the Green Ghana Day, he said, saw the authorities planting 10, 000 tree seedlings of varied species.

The exercise brought on board some stakeholders such as the Forestry Commission (FC), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Water Commission, Atwima Nwabiagya North Assembly and educational institutions.

Dr. Mensah-Akutteh lauded the Nana Akufo-Addo-led Administration for initiating the Greening Ghana project, saying the authorities were committed to implementing it at their own level to help save the Barekese Dam.

He warned farmers, real estate developers and sand winners to stay off the catchment area of the reservoir, saying the GWCL had teamed up with the Regional Security Council (REGSEC) to deal with encroachers.

“We have given them two months ultimatum to vacate the land or face the full rigours of the law.”

GNA