Northern Wetlands

Title: Enhancing Rural Livelihoods and Food Security through Wise Use of Wetlands in Northern Ghana

Background information:

Food security is an issue of global, national and local concern and is inseparable from poverty, with poor people being at greater risk of food insecurity. The five northern regions of Ghana, Upper East, Upper West, Northern, Savannah and North East, remain the poorest in the country, with the poverty index reaching over 90 percent in several districts. The regions have great potential to increase current levels of agricultural productivity and become the “bread basket” of Ghana. However, the regions face decreasing agricultural productivity as a result of the unfavorable climatic conditions characterized by decreasing rainfall, high temperatures and frequent droughts.

Many small wetland formations (including natural wetlands, irrigation dams, water reservoirs and excavations) are providing the life-line for rural communities in northern Ghana who depend on such wetlands extensively for farming, animal husbandry and domestic use, including drinking water. Wetlands provide critical functions in terms of the maintenance of water cycle, water storage and purification, and are essential for adequate groundwater re-charge that will maintain water in the proposed dams.

This project therefore seeks to document, characterise and disseminate comprehensive information on wetlands of northern Ghana and demonstrate how wetlands in the region may be used wisely to support agricultural productivity, livelihoods and food security in rural communities. The ultimate goal is that “rural communities in northern Ghana have the capability to adopt wetland wise-use strategies to improve their livelihoods and contribute effectively to ensuring food security in the region and in Ghana at large, despite changing climatic conditions”.

Project objectives

The project outlined three objectives and these include:

Objective 1:To identify, map out and characterize wetlands in northern Ghana to inform the national programme of providing small dams to boost agricultural productivity;

Objective 2: To test, adapt and promote innovative wise use and integrated water management activities in communities in and around key wetlands for sustainable agricultural productivity and livelihood improvement;

Objective 3: To develop capacity within District Assemblies and rural communities in northern Ghana and elsewhere for management and wise-use of wetlands through training and dissemination of relevant information

 

The project started with mapping and groundtruthing of wetlands in northern Ghana. Four communities were therefore selected as project sites and these include Janga (a community along the White Volta River in the West Mamprugu District of the North East Region of Ghana), Sankana (a community situated in the Upper West region in the Nadowli Kaleo District that depends on a dam for farming activities), Binaba (a community in the Binduri District in the Upper East region which is dependent on a dam.) and Bazua (a community along the White Volta River in the Bawku West District of the Upper East region). Ecological surveys (avifauna, entomology, water quality and small mammals), sociological and socio-economic surveys have been conducted and the project is currently at the intervention phase, working with other important stakeholders in addressing some challenges faced by these communities in their farming activities.

Donor – Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA)

Project coordinator – Jones Quartey

Donor: 
Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA)