The Dayi River Basin

Part one: potential of the Dayi River Basin

1 Physical Characteristics of the Dayi River Basin

1.1 Environmental characteristics

The Dayi River Basin in Ghana is located in the Volta Region between latitude 7° 19' N - 6° 38' N, and longitude 0° 39' E -0° 17' E. The basin is bounded by the Togo border to the east and in the west by the Volta Lake. The Dayi River takes its source from the Akpafu range in Togo, draining through the low-lying portion of the Hohoe Municipality to the Detu highlands in the south of the Hohoe Municipality. It then discharges into the Volta Lake in the Kpando District.²

Graph 1 Dayi River Basin Ghana Source: IVM Institute Environmental Studies

The length of the valley and width of the valley are respectively about 60 and 20 km. The catchment covers an area of approximately 2180 km2: the main part is located in Ghana, around 422 km2 in Togo.³ The catchment is a flat valley surrounded by mountain ranges varying in height between 300 and 1000 m. The Dayi river has multiple tributaries originating from the surrounding mountains. The Ahavo, Aflabo and Koloe Rivers originate in the eastern side of the catchment, close to the Togolese border. The Tsatsadu and Fentbi Rivers run from North to South, starting from the steep and densely forested slopes in the north-west. A third tributary, the Tsidje or Feku River, with a similar flow direction, rises in the lower lying area.⁴

The subsoil consists mainly of old sedimentary rocks as shales, quartzites and volcanic rocks that are covered by a weathering layer. Along the major rivers there are younger unconsolidated deposits as loam, sand and gravel. ⁵ The basin is underlain by three geological formations. Half of the basin substratum is the Buem formation. The Togo Series covers 48% of the region with Quartzite, Sandstone, Shale, Phyllite, Schist and Silicified Limestone. The remaining 2% is part of the Dahomeyan formation that is made up of mainly Schist & Migmatites.⁶

The vegetation of the area can be divided into three zones, reflecting rainfall distribution and altitude. There is moist semi-deciduous forest, savannah and mountain vegetation.⁷ The north-western and eastern part of the catchment is forested land that is characterised by closed canopy and little undergrowth. This is found along the slopes of the Akwapin-Togo-Attakora ranges. On the lower slopes moist semi-deciduous forest has been replaced by secondary forest due to agricultural practices. Savannah woodland – grassland with scattered trees like acacia, bamboo and baobabs – is found in the northern section of the basin.⁸

1.2 Climate

The climate in the Volta region is tropical. The warmest and coolest months are March and September, with mean temperatures of 28°C and 25°C respectively. The basin is characterized by a bi-modal rainfall regime with a mean annual number of rainy days between 90 and 120 days. There is a considerable variation in the onset, duration and intensity of the monthly rainfall. The main rainy season extends from mid-April to July with a peak in July of about 197mm rainfall. The smaller second rainy season occurs between September and November, with instances of the highest peak of 193mm rainfall in October. The annual rainfall in the basin varies between 1,100-1,300 mm in the plains and about 1,400-1,600 mm in the higher ranges of the northern part. The potential evaporation is around 1500 mm/yr.⁹

1.3 Water in the catchment

The base flow of the river determines whether there can be a year-round water supply. There is a clearly detectable correlation found in the basin between the yearly rainfall, groundwater recharge and river base flow.¹⁰ In 2012 the base flow was around 1 to 2 m3/s at Hohoe and increases to about 6 m3/s at Gbefi, further downstream. The water level downstream is higher as the many tributaries release into the Dayi.¹¹ The Dayi River has a year round supply and the groundwater potential is believed to be very high, as the Basin is rich in high yielding aquifers and the indication of a high recharge rate. It is therefore assumed that the groundwater potential in the basin is sufficient for domestic, industrial and irrigation purposes.¹²

Although the Dayi River is year-round, most streams in the basin including major tributaries such as Utaka, Koloe and Seku dry up during the rainy season, or have very little flow.¹³ The Water Evaluation and Planning Model (WEAP) used by the WRC has shown that during the dry season the tributaries in Kpando en Ho show ‘dryness’ as well as ‘no rains’ as the daily average volume of stream flow within the reach of the rivers ranges from 0 mm³ to 0.8 mm³.¹⁴

The quality of the water is measured by the Water Quality Index and rated ‘good’ at Hohoe in March 2010.¹⁵ The Ghana Water Company also states that the water quality is sufficient, as they do not have major problems in cleaning the water from the river.¹⁶

1.4 Importance of the region

The Dayi basin harbours a natural environment that is of ecological and touristic importance to Ghana. The area contains Ghana’s only mountain range with it highest peak at Afadjato, rises 890 metres above sea level. There are the Tsatsuda falls and the Wli falls, the highest waterfall in West Africa.¹⁷ The falls are located in the Agumatsa Wildlife Sanctuary, home of hundreds of fruit bats, monkeys and antelopes. The basin is well marked with natural caves in Akpafu and Likpe Todome. Important protected areas in the basin include Odomi forest reserve, Kpando Range Dayi Block forest reserve, Kpando Range West forest reserve, Togo Plateau, etc.¹⁸ Another important spot in the basin is the Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary, a sacred grove in a traditional conservation area that is home to Mona and Pata monkeys. ¹⁹

Although important for the biodiversity and touristic potential of the basin, these areas remain unprotected. There are plans towards building a hydro-dam within the waterfall. ‘If at any point in time, we can find another way to use it for hydropower, we will use it’, mentioned Bob Alfa from the WRC. Moreover, there might be a uranium deposit not far away from the Wli waterfalls which might be explored: ‘this is the most expensive mineral now, so if it is there, mining may become an option.’ ²⁰

1.5 Infrastructural development in the region
The Dayi River has no large dams although this seems inconclusive: some people talk about dams, while others seem to know there are none. The weir in Hohoe is used for the water supply of the city; therefore WCR considers it as a dam. The WRC also mentions a dam in one of the tributaries, and some other small ones.²¹

Road development is going strong country wide but also has its environmental costs. At the moment, the economic improvements are seen as outweighing these downsides²². As Ton van der Zon from the Dutch Embassy said: ‘Really the route improvement program, I have never seen so much being done on the roads. But this is not in the advantage of the environment. You open things’.²³

One of the main changes in the past decades is the growing number of water pipe connections, even in rural areas. Where people first only depended on rivers, streams and wells, they now depend on Ghana Water Company Limited for their daily supply of water for daily use. While this undoubtedly has increased the quality of the water, it also carries negative consequences. Pipe bursts are not rare, leaving people without water.

The infrastructure of the pipe network can be problematic. In different cities in the Volta region the water availability is under pressure. The rapidly growing population outgrows the infrastructure. The water in Hohoe is being rationed, as the pumps are not strong enough to supply the whole city with water on a daily basis. While now around 450.000 gallons a day are produced, at least one million is needed to supply the whole city.²⁴

2 Socio-economic characteristics of the Dayi River Basin

2.1 Economic activities
The Dayi River Basin, situated in the Volta region, is a relatively densely populated area (123 persons/km2). The basin consists predominantly of rural/traditional communities, with the exception of a few cities like Ho and Hohoe. About 83% of the economically active population works in the informal private sector. The dominant economic activities in the catchment basically consist of subsistence and some cash crop farming.²⁵

In the first half of the twentieth century the region became tree based, with cocoa as one of the main crops. Other important crops were oil palm, plantain and cassava. Formerly the Volta region was part of Togo Land which still leaves some traces within the cocoa sector.²⁶ Ownership of land in the Volta nowadays often belongs to people living in Togo (as they moved to Togo when the Volta became part of Ghana, still owning the land). This is limiting the current development of the cocoa sector as there is less innovation and initiative by the tenants. Furthermore, smuggling to Togo because of better prices negatively influences the economy of the Volta region.²⁷

With the huge bushfires of 1982 and 1984 the region became more impoverished, and many farmers switched from tree crops to annual crops like maize.²⁸ Moreover, the 21^st century introduced vegetable farming in the Dayi Basin. Examples of farming groups cultivating vegetables and other crops are the Kpando site at Lake Volta, started in 1978 under GIDA guidance and the Ve Koleone irrigation scheme set up in 2004, producing okra, garden eggs and pepper for the market in Ho and Hohoe. Two farmer groups also included in the Dayi Basin Board are the farmer group in Woadze under the guidance of the Development Institute, and the rice farming God Deliver Farm Association in New Baika. Moringa is also an interesting crop although prices remain low. There are few larger (fruit) plantations in the Volta region, one of which is the Kingdom Fruit Company that grows pineapples.²⁹ On a smaller scale there are some fisheries that are possible a new source of income for the region as their number is increasing. ³⁰

The economic future of the Dayi Basin is uncertain, but a positive trend in agriculture can be found. For instance, according to our informant from the Cocoa Board, production seems to increase again in the region, as local chiefs help farmers to buy land from Togolese land owners.³¹ This way the production of cocoa will benefit the regional economy more.

2.2 The main categories of livelihoods
In the Dayi Basin the most important livelihood is farming, which is mostly subsistence and a little for commercial purposes. While about 60% of the population depends on farming as main source of income,³² in some smaller places like Woadze almost 90% of the people call themselves farmer,³³ indicating how important farming is for most people as source of income and security. Farming is mostly done without machines, as working with cutlass and hoe is most common. The farmers grow plantain, cassava, maize, groundnut, yam, bananas, rice, and a variety of vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, okra and garden eggs.³⁴ Besides farming many people have other sources of income like the selling of fish, little food stalls or small shops. These extra sources of income may become even more necessary in the future, as many farmers see their income decreasing because of lower prices for their products and higher prices for their seeds and fertilizers.³⁵
Livelihoods and gender relations

The household is the most important socio economic unit, in which mostly both husband and wife each have sources of revenue. In the Dayi area there is gender inequality when looked at control over revenues, as the wife will marry into the husband’s family, who control the trees and fertile soils. This said, there are several forms of cooperation between husband and wife, and women can inherit from their father and also be independent farmers.³⁶

Although women are not specially excluded from certain tasks, they do carry the responsibility over other forms of work which men do not. While both men and women work on the land of their farm, women also take care of the household, the children, the cooking, and the selling of their products on the market. As one of the residents of Woadze noted ‘they do more’.³⁷ Next to this, women mostly earn less revenue as they are responsible for subsistence farming and the selling at the market, while the men are more often responsible for the commercial farming.³⁸ Besides, in many households all the money earned through farming will go directly to the husband. This might lead to ‘non-maintenance’ of wives, who must ask for everything they want to buy, and do not get enough for them to take care of themselves and their children.³⁹
2.3 Resource utilisation and interests of the various groups

In the basin the Dayi River and its tributaries are one of the major water sources for the communities. The people in the basin take their water from six main sources, namely rivers, streams, wells, standing pipes, rainwater, and dugouts and boreholes. The pipelines are sometimes privately owned or stand as public pipe. Around 47.6% of all the households in the Dayi basin have access to potable water (boreholes and pipelines), but only 35.5% of these people have then access to a pipe line, of which most live in Ho area. In the rural areas groundwater is an important source of water supply. Both rural and urban areas suffer from water scarcity during the dry season.⁴⁰

In some villages the boreholes are there for everyone to use for free, but in most places a small payment must be made to fetch water. For example, Woadze has a couple of stand pipes of which two were publicly owned. Two broke down and never got fixed, while the other two were taken over by families who were unhappy with the management of the pipes, and now sell the water in buckets to their community members. In this way the community members set up their own system of water supply.⁴¹ This creates a situation in which some people have access to water, while others sometimes have to beg for a loan to be able to buy clean drinking water.

In the cities a similar dependency is seen. Many people within the city still do not have a pipe line, and need to buy water from their neighbours. This can strengthen unequal power relations of a community as people are depending on the willingness of others to provide this water.

Moreover, having access to boreholes does not mean this is the only source people use. Visiting Tafi Atome, it became clear that although there are boreholes in the village, about 80% of the people still use the stream (as they find the quality of the water is better for their use, as the borehole contain minerals making it difficult to cook or wash).⁴²

Regarding the use of water there is also a difference between the sexes that is important to stress. Since women are responsible for the household, they use more water for their tasks like cooking, washing of children, cleaning, washing of clothing, etc. Most of the time (50.8% of households in the Volta region) the women will also be the ones fetching the water.⁴³ Since water sources can be far, and water has to be carried several times a day, this task is truly energy and time consuming. Besides this, women are often the ones selling the products at the markets, where sanitation is low and water has to be fetched from another place. This results in higher risk of contamination and pollution of the water used at the market place.⁴⁴

3 Threats to the Dayi River Basin: interaction between environment and livelihood

‘Water is one of the most important factors in human life’- Mr. Apawu, Woadze farmers group

‘Water is life’ - the Chief of Hohoe, Gabusu the sixth
No human being can do without water, although the people in the Dayi Basin are forced by circumstances to live with very little on a daily basis. Especially for the farmers, water is crucial to make their livelihoods sustainable. They depend on the rains, or use the rivers as sources for their irrigation. For the other livelihoods like selling food in stalls, a shortage of water or a complete stop, can mean a whole day or more without work.

The water resources and therefore also the livelihoods of the people are influenced by the infrastructural developments in the catchment, the environmental degradation and climate change. There is continuous interaction between the practises of the population of Dayi Basin and their natural environment. A lot of the problems in the Dayi Basin are the result of livelihood practises.⁴⁵ Here some attention is given to those influences that shape the livelihoods of the people in the Dayi basin, and how this interaction takes place.

3.1 Environmental Degradation and livelihoods

In the last fifty years the basin has undergone a transformation under the pressure of new developments and population growth, which now show itself in the form of pollution and degradation. The causes are diverse. There are no large industries in the area or many large farms to substantially degrade the environment. Causes of the environmental degradation can be found in the individual agricultural practices and the daily behaviour of people.

One of the most important threats to the environment is the high level of deforestation in the Volta region. It is expected that by 2030 the total forests lands would be halved.⁴⁶ People’s livelihoods, especially farmers, increase the rate of deforestation as they take land to use for agriculture. Besides clearing land for farming, people also cut down trees to make charcoal which they sell.



Picture 1 Land cover change in Dayi Basin between 1972 and 2001 Source: IVM synthesis report

To clear the land or to hunt for animals, people use fire which often gets out of control.⁴⁷ These fires reduce soil fertility by burning away all microorganisms and reduce the habitat of many animal species. Besides this the land becomes dryer and more exposed to the weather with soil erosion as consequence.⁴⁸ The fires also discourage people to work on reforestation since their hard work will be burned down the next dry season.⁴⁹ Because of deforestation floods are occurring more regularly,⁵⁰ causing land erosion since no trees hold the soil together.⁵¹ The floods destroy people’s houses and farms, especially when the farmers decided to farm on the river banks for their irrigation.

While in some cases the water is too abundant in the forms of floods, many times the opposite is the case when water bodies have dried up. One reason is the disappearing tree cover which protects the water from evaporating.⁵² Mr. Ahorney from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mentions that ‘streams are in a crisis’. ⁵³ This makes people even more dependent on the GWCL, CWSA or their District Assembly to provide them with water, or it forces them to walk longer distances for their daily supply of water.

The quality of the water in the catchment is deteriorating because of polluting agrochemicals. Since many farmers now farm close to the river, the chemicals flow directly into the water. The WRC plans to implement the Buffer Zone Policy to counter the several forms of pollution and degradation,⁵⁴ but for now the water bodies people use in their daily lives are drying up or getting polluted. There is no empirical evidence that there is a chemical concentration in the water bodies, as there are hardly any measurements.⁵⁵ According to the Chief in Hohoe, companies are complaining about the increased cost that are necessary to clean the water,⁵⁶ but the GWCL does not see the chemicals as a threat for the water quality: ‘That level is low, so for now, I would say it is okay’.

Next to the use of agrochemicals as fertilizer, chemicals are also used to clear the farmland of unwanted vegetation. Many farmers use Glyphosate, a broad spectrum chemical, which will clear all the different types of vegetation. The EPA does not check how often people use it. They only try to ban certain chemicals from the market.⁵⁷ Next to fertilizers and Glyphosate, some people use chemicals for fishing (although WRC claims they have handled this problem),⁵⁸ which, together with the drying up of water bodies, affects the fishing practises. Nelson Adzamoah, a resident of Woadze, explained there was plenty of fish in the rivers, but now you cannot fish anymore.⁵⁹ This therefore threatens the livelihoods of local fishermen as well as local fishing for family use.

A threat to the environment difficult to tackle in the short term is the mindset of the people regarding their environment. As EPA stresses: ‘our mentality is that way, we don’t respect our resources. People think the water will clean itself’.⁶⁰ These problems are related to poverty and ignorance (people do not know the consequences of their actions).⁶¹ Moreover, government is not regulating its laws (this will be elaborated on more in the last part of this chapter). The fact that these practices can cause much damage is facilitated by population growth and inward migration from the northern parts of the country. This is also caused as the old taboo system (explained in 4.2) is losing grip. ⁶²

3.2 Climate Change and livelihoods
Since about 60% of the economically active population in the catchment works in the agricultural sector and depends on it, climate change and its consequences on this sector are crucial to be looked at. The rain has reduced over the years. Annual rainfall in Hohoe has decreased from approximately 1700 mm/year in 1975 to 1400 mm/year in 2010. There are less early and late rains, making the dry season longer. This has led to more and more tributaries and main rivers drying up quickly, leading to a lower surface and groundwater availability for the increasing population.⁶³ Also, the onset of the rainy season is no longer reliable. Furthermore, it is believed that the temperature is rising. The mean annual daily temperature has increased by almost 2°C in the period 1969-2000 and is believed to increase with 2.5-3.0 °C by 2050.⁶⁴ Land is drying up, making it more prone to erosion ad desertification.

In a study done by IVM, the Institute for Environmental Studies, the attitude of local farmers towards climate change in the Dayi Basin has been explored. The results of this study indicated that ‘a lack of water, a failing harvest and the subsequent outmigration of youth’ were seen as the three most important consequences of climate related hazards.⁶⁵ The respondents in this research considered themselves depending on the climate, and therefore also vulnerable to climate related hazards.