The Dayi River Basin

Box 1 Perception on Climate Change

Interestingly the IVM study showed, as did the interviews, that the perceptions of local people regarding the connections between local environmental problems and the climate were not always correct.^66 In the IVM study, as well as this one, respondents indicated that they believed climate change would be solved when trees would be planted; ‘so that we can plant more trees that will give us rainfall’.^67 Although there is a connection between deforestation and rainfall, the idea that planting trees along ones river beds will bring back the rain is over enthusiastic.

Because of the changing rain pattern rain-fed agriculture is no longer reliable, and most farmers do not have the means and technology to implement irrigation systems.⁶⁸ Their harvest is smaller or they cannot harvest twice a year, but only once.⁶⁹ This in turn forces them to practises like charcoal production and farming on the banks of the rivers that harm their environment even more. This creates a negative spiral in which livelihood practise and changes in environment and climate negatively influence each other. Farming on the river banks results in deforestation along the water line, soil erosion, higher evaporation of the water because of a lack of shade, and pollution in the form of agrochemicals leaking into the water bodies. The moving to the river banks is born out of necessity, as Mr. Alfa from WRC argues; the rain-based agriculture is just not sustainable anymore now the weather has become unpredictable.⁷⁰

4 Summary of Part One

The main economic activities and livelihoods in the basin are small individual farms spread all over the catchment. And while there are no big industries like mining, the area is subject to growing environmental degradation as deforestation, erosion and pollution, spurred by changes in the climate. This environmental degradation is mostly caused by locals themselves due to poor agricultural practices and garbage disposal. At the same time, these people are also the ones who will live with the consequences of this degradation. It is a negative spiral that needs to be halted.

For solving these degradation problems something needs to be done on all levels of society, in which the local farmers, market women etcetera are being involved in working towards a solution. In the next part of this chapter will look at the governmental institutions managing water problems, involvement of local stakeholders and the importance of civil society and NGOs in managing the natural resources of the Dayi River Basin.

Part two: institutional framework, involvement and the role of NGOs

5 National policies and institutions

5.1 Governmental institutions managing Ghana’s water resources
In Ghana, the lead government institution responsible for water is the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing (MWRWH). Their main focus is on the overall water resources management and drinking water supply. They are responsible for overall policy formulation, planning, coordination, collaboration, monitoring and evaluation of programmes for water supply and sanitation, and have written the Ghana National Water Policy.⁷¹ The Ministry is divided in tree departments: the Water Resource Commission (WRC), Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) and Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA).

The Water Resource Commission was established in 1996, ‘to harmonize water resources management and related issues concerning all consumptive and non-consumptive uses of water in the country’.⁷² They are responsible for the management of water resources and the policies that influence these water resources. They have an important position in the coordination and collaboration among the various actors involved in the water resources sector. Ghana Water Company Limited was established in 1999 and is responsible for the planning, managing and implementation of urban water supply. The Community Water and Sanitation Agency was established in 1998, and is charged with coordinating and facilitating the implementation of the National Community Water and Sanitation Programme in the District Assemblies. They are the most important facilitator of the rural water supply and sanitation sub-sector (rural communities and small towns) ⁷³ by placing (mechanised) boreholes, wells, etc.

After the CWSA places these water facilities, the responsibility of maintenance is handed over to the District Assemblies and communities themselves.⁷⁴ The District Assemblies form the basis of the decentralised government and ‘are responsible for the planning, implementation, operation and maintenance of water and sanitation facilities and the legal owners of communal infrastructures in the rural communities and small towns’. The Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment is responsible for making sure that the Environmental Sanitation Policy is implemented, including the management and regulation of solid and liquid wastes by local government bodies, the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDA’s).⁷⁵ Zoomlion is a company that works with the government, responsible for garbage disposal.
5.2 IWRM on national level: the policy and mandated institutions
The implementation framework of the National Water Policy is the Water Sector Strategic Development Plan (WSSDP), which consists of three components, namely i) The National Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Plan, ii) the Urban Water Supply Strategy, and iii)the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Strategy. The management of river basins falls under the National IWRM Plan.⁷⁶

In Ghana the conceptual emergence of IWRM started in the early 1990’s. In December 2012 the National IWRM Plan was published by the WRC. Some of the steps Ghana has already taken to make IWRM a fact, are the establishment of WRC, the adoption of the 2007 National Water Policy (NWP), and the development of five national river basin IWRM plans and four corresponding River Basin Boards between 2003 and 2011. The WRC developed the National IWRM Plan through a consultative and participatory processes involving all the key stakeholders, and the plan is ‘intended to guide and urge the different stakeholders involved in water resources management (...) to incorporate IWRM in their plans’.⁷⁷

Next to the NWP and the National IWRM Plan there are other policies that influence the water bodies in Ghana. The Buffer Zone Policy, formulated by the MWRWH and the WRC, has as its goal to protect the vegetative covers of the rivers and streams and thereby the water quality (by implementing a buffer zone of 1- to 90 meters). Up until now, the policy has not been fully implemented. Also the Bush Fire Policy (the People’s National Defence Council (PNDC) enacted the Bush Fire Prevention Law 46. This was later repealed by the Bush Fire Prevention and Control Law in 1990)⁷⁸ is meant to protect and manage the natural resources and to restore the environmental quality by fighting uncontrolled wildfires. This policy, although implemented, does not seem to be very effective because of a lack of resources.⁷⁹ Last, the Forest and Wildlife Policy (1994), which seeks to promote the conservation and sustainable use of the nations forest and wildlife resources.⁸⁰ These policies are so insignificant that they have failed to leave any serious impact on the primary stakeholders like the farmers.⁸¹ One of the problems found by the respondents is the lack of power from legal documents. They exist, but are not enforced⁸².

5.3 Chieftancy

To understand Ghana’s political system, a minimal understanding of the traditional rule is necessary. Before the Europeans introduced a multiparty system in Ghana the country was ruled by chiefs. Today, this system still exist, although the power of chiefs has diminished. One of the ways in which a chief ruled his people was with taboos (as described before), of which some still exist today. However, the rules seem to crumble down as people are no longer afraid of the taboos.⁸³

Box 2 Chieftancy

Chieftaincy is a form of democracy as the chief rules with the will of the people. It is not the eldest son that automatically becomes the new chief, he will be chosen from within the Royal family. Each chief has its own stool (throne).^84 Ghana is divided in different kingdoms. All villages have their own chief (traditional leader), which are under a paramount chief (traditional leader of a district), the highest leader in a region is a president of that region. Within the whole of Ghana there are 4 highest kingdoms. The influence of chiefs has been diminishing because of the power the national government has acquired, but since the constitution of 1992 the existence of the National House of Chiefs is acknowledged, as part of customary law. ^85 Their status is not lost as they remain influential in local affairs.^86

In the current system the traditional authorities have a say in choosing one member for the District assembly, most often chiefs then chiefs become a link between local politics and the people.⁸⁷ Even if this is so on paper, this is not always the case in reality, as Chief Gabusu the Sixth of Hohoe explains: ‘One third of it [Municipal Assembly] should be chiefs and other opinion leaders, but unfortunately we are not always consulted. It works on paper, but not in reality’. He goes on to argue that traditional leaders should be consulted more often since they are the ones working for the benefit of their people, ‘they are the custodians of the land’.⁸⁸

5.4 Rights of access and control over natural resources
The specific traditional rights of access to natural resources are connected to each individual community, in the form of taboo systems and bye-laws. An important way to understand the access to natural resources is by looking at the land ownership system in the Volta region and these taboo’s.

Land ownership
In the Volta region, contrary to the rest of Ghana where land is often owned by chiefs, land is owned by individual families.⁸⁹ Still the chiefs have some influence over the land. When a piece of land will be sold, the local chief needs to be involved and give permission, as a check against the illegal selling of land to different people at the same time.⁹⁰ Nonetheless, people make sales without involving the chief and this does not give a chief the true power to also manage the lands in his domain, since land is owned privately and is therefore also privately managed.

Although land is privately owned in the Volta region, the government can make a compulsory acquisition in which they decide on the price paid. ‘You can own the land in this country, but you do not own any of the resources’, as Mr. Alfa from the WRC states. This means that if the government finds a lucrative resource on someone’s property, the government has the ‘right’ to take this.⁹¹

Taboo systems
The taboo systems include rules for the use resources like water, how the water should be used and by whom. For instance, in the community of Woadze, citizens explain that it was prohibited to take water from the stream on Fridays, people were not allowed to fish or wash their cooking pots in the stream, and for women it was taboo to go to the river during their menstruation.⁹² Besides, people are not allowed to enter holy forests where ancestors are buried as explained by the queenmother of Kpando, and that it is taboo to take anything like wood or fruits from these holy places.⁹³

These taboos, once powerful rules in a community, have lost their power in the last decades. While these old systems are disappearing, a strong new system to protect the environment is not yet in place. ‘The culture of maintenance is not there. The only way we take care of our natural resources is by prohibiting people’. There are the taboo systems, ‘but now modernization has set in. We lost these taboos so we need to change. Something else needs to be in place that does the same’.⁹⁴

Claiming rights
Besides the fact that the old taboo systems are losing their power, other changes have set in as well. Where people fetched water from a stream before, now some use the pipes, which make them dependent on a company providing them with water for money. In this sense, it is hard to speak about rights to access and control over natural resources. When you have money, you buy water. When you have the luck to have an involved chief, you can ask him for help. Claiming rights remains hard as enforcement of the law remains difficult.⁹⁵
5.5 Stakeholders coordination
Water resources management in Ghana is divided over different ministries and departments, which makes it difficult to see clearly who is responsible for what. To truly make water resources management Integrated, the WRC, GWCL and CWSA need to work closely together, as well as work closely with all the different ministries and departments which influence water bodies and water management. At the moment, this is not happening.

Different stakeholders interviewed show different perceptions on the communication and collaboration on water management between the governmental departments, District Assemblies and local actors. WRC states that they work closely together with EPA, and that their contact is almost daily, as well as working together with GWCL and Ghanaian Integrated Development Authority (GIDA).⁹⁶ But most of the respondents share the opinion that the collaboration between different governmental institutions is minimal and weak. The representative from the EPA states that ‘the communication is very very weak’. Also, EPA states that there is no forum for interaction between the different departments who work on the same resources. Responsibility over the resources is not clear.⁹⁷ Ken Kinney, the executive director of the NGO the Development Institute, states that ‘they all work like islands to themselves’.⁹⁸ Both the Forestry Commission and the Fire Department work on the problem of bush fires, but because of a lack of good communication they often do the same project in the same places, therefore wasting resources. ⁹⁹ Even Ton van der Zon, representing the Dutch Embassy, states that collaboration is difficult since there are so many different departments working on water.¹⁰⁰

Besides the clear difficulties, one of the ways in which water resources management is integrated, is in the form of the basin boards that WRC has set up. In these boards, stakeholders have to work together on managing the appointed water bodies. In the Dayi Basin Board also, an NGO, farmers and traditional leaders are included, working towards a Negotiated Approach. In this way, WRC hopes to make the boards and its actions more sustainable, since then the decisions made will have a better chance of being accepted and enacted.¹⁰¹
5.6 Non-governmental organizations , donors and the national government
In the Volta region only the NGO the Development Institute seems active on the topic of human security and resource management. Their goal is to ‘empower individuals, organisations and communities to facilitate the linkage between micro and macro levels of society for sustainable development’.¹⁰² They work on several projects in the Dayi Basin, some of which in collaboration with the WRC. In this way the DI works together with the government by supporting WRC and helping them to make the Dayi Basin Board functional.

The two donors interviewed were the Dutch Embassy and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), both not working in the Volta region (decided in collaboration with the Ghanaian government). Although these donors both state that the national government is an important player, they both work together with the government by partnering with district assemblies. CIDA tries to collaborate with the WRC to strengthen their capacity, and sees itself as an advisory agent and partners up with NGO’s: ‘We have sector working groups on for example water and sanitation. These include governmental partners, donors and some NGO’s’.¹⁰³ The Dutch Embassy has as their main partner the municipal and district assemblies, although they decide on national level where they will start a project, if it will be rural or urban, and who will be involved. The idea is that they only help to execute the plans already made by the DA’s, transform it into a master plan, but keeping the assemblies the responsible ones.¹⁰⁴ Again, while this might be true, they also create their projects in the light of their own experience and wishes.

Within the partnership the donors see the Ghanaian government having the strongest input. There is an oversight committee that steers the program (consisting of four members: Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Local Government, Ministry of Water Resources and the local government institute). ‘They are the responsible ones! they are doing all. They have to bring in the proposals, they have to approve all the activities in the master plan, they have to decide. (...)We are strengthening the assemblies’. ¹⁰⁵ However, in working with the DA’s, the Dutch Embassy bypasses the WRC completely since they do not believe that WRC has the power needed for the execution of their plans.¹⁰⁶

6 Basin management

6.1 Setting up of the board
To address the growing water variability, floods and water quality degradation in the Dayi River Basin, the WRC established as participatory institution the Dayi Basin Board (DBB), which was officially inauguration in July 2010. The DBB was the fourth basin board that has been set up by WRC. The Board has a consultative and advisory role for the implementation of policy within the management of the Dayi River Basin’s water resources. Hence the ADAPTS programme coincided with the set-up of the Board, the DBB has been the first board to represents local stakeholders like farmers, chiefs and queenmothers and it is a pilot for future boards. The ADAPTS concept of ‘building resilience of vulnerable communities and ensuring a transition from traditional agriculture to irrigated and sustainable agriculture’ is adopted in the Dayi River Basin IWRM Plan. ADAPTS was implemented by WRC, Development Institute, Both-ENDS, Acacia Water, Institute of Environmental Studies of the Free University in Amsterdam (see www.adapts.nl). In the ADAPTS approach, the needs, priorities and actions of local people and their communities are taken as the starting point for (climate-proof) water management. The Development Institute actively engages local farmers in sustainable agriculture. It introduced buffer zones and small-scale irrigation using water from the river to cope with more variable rainfall and drought.¹⁰⁷
The DBB membership includes the following¹⁰⁸:
(a) A chairperson appointed by the WRC,

(b) A representative of the WRC,

(c) One person representing each of the following within the basin.

- Woadze Sustainable Agric Farmers Co-operative

- Forestry Commission, Volta Region

- Gbi Traditional Council, Hohoe

- Kpando Traditional Council

- Ministry of Health, Hohoe

- Environmental Protection Agency, Volta Region

- Department of Women and Children affairs, Volta Region

- Jasikan District Assembly

- Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Hohoe

- Development Institute, Accra (NGO)

- Ghana Water Company Limited, Hohoe

- Ghana Fire Service, Volta Region

- God Deliver Farm association, New Baika, Jasikan

- Hohoe Municipal Assembly

- Kpando District Assembly

(d) The Basin Officer to be appointed by the WRC in charge of the Board’s Secretariat.

When the Dayi Basin Board was set up, the basin covered five districts/municipals in the region, namely Jasikan District, Kpando district, South Dayi district, Hohoe municipal and Ho municipal.¹⁰⁹ Because of administrative changes, the new district/municipals are now called Jasikan district, Hohoe municipal, Afadjato south district, Ho west district, North Dayi district and Kpando municipal.¹¹⁰ Ho district is the central point of the regions administration, and offices of Ghana Water Company Limited, Fire Service, Gender and Children department (due to institutional changes two separate departments now), Environmental Protection Agency and Forestry Commission are based here.

6.2 Basin Plan
The Dayi River Basin IWRM Plan was presented in December 2011. When writing the Dayi River Basin IWRM Plan, in embracing a participatory approach, a number of stakeholder meetings were organised. Planners from District Assemblies, governmental departments, farmer groups, the Dayi River Basin Board and other water users organisations were asked for their opinion on the current water related problems in the basin. This resulted in a list of problems, and based on these issues a prioritised list of actions and measurements was included in the Plan. ¹¹¹
Prioritised list of proposed actions/measures

Prioritised list of proposed actions/measures Action	Explanatory remarks related to implementation of actions
Promote water harvesting techniques to store water for irrigation and educate vulnerable communities on other coping strategies Build capacities of vulnerable communities on climate change adaptation	Small scale adaptation measures have proven to be cost effective and manageable by the communities themselves as demonstrated by pilot irrigation activities in the basin through the ADAPTS initiatives. Up scaling of these activities are recommended in the basin and other parts of Ghana.
Public Education/ Awareness creation and intervention measures (provision of toilet facilities and disposal sites)	An extensive public education is required to change attitudes and also there is the need to provide alternative sites for waste disposal and other sanitary facilities
Enacting of bye-laws	The District Assemblies have bye laws which when enforced will help manage water resources and preserve the environment
Regulations on activities near river basins should be enforced e.g. distance from river to nearest farm. Any economic activity should be at least 50m from the River basins.	Develop and enforce buffer zone policy to minimise impacts of flooding and implement structural and non structural measures to minimize flooding. In addition, develop early warning systems
B Develop early warning systems to minimize the impact of floods	Flood models are necessary to demarcate flood prone area based on which early warning system will be developed.
Develop water harvesting and conservation techniques	Water conservation techniques which are resistant to the impact s of climate change should be development to provide water during the low flows.
Proper disposal of liquid and solid waste.	The Commission needs to collaborate more effectively with the MAs, and DAs to ensure proper disposal of liquid and solid wastes

Source: Dayi River Basin IWRM Plan¹¹²
It is interesting that bush fires are seen as a large problem in the region, but that they do not fall directly under the proposed actions in the Dayi River Basin IWRM Plan. Moreover, the fire service, as discussed earlier, does not work sufficiently in a collaborative way with other departments, to their own regret.¹¹³

The plans of the Dayi River Basin Board seem to be focused on short term goals, actions that can be taken in the upcoming years. More long term goals such as reforestation seem to absent from their initial plans, although this might change when the first steps have been taken.

6.3 Current state of the board
Although the board has been officially inaugurated in 2010, the board is not yet operational. Bob Alfa from WRC explained that the board in not complete yet, since for now there is no Basin Officer who is in charge of the Boards secretariat. ¹¹⁴ All board members agree that the board is not active at this moment. Togbe Ahorney from the Environmental Protection Agency remembers there being a meeting to identify important issues in the basin, but he could not tell us what was discussed exactly. Moreover, the roles and actions that they are supposed to be undertaking are not happening. EPA believes it should check the water quality, but since the formation of the board, not even a single sample has been taken.¹¹⁵ There are different reasons why the board is not functioning.

The first problem is that the budget has not been released to start the subcommittees and implement the plans. Although the budget is there, kept in a personal account of WRC, the government needs to give permission before they can access the money. Other boards have less problems as they already have running budgets from previous years. Most of the boards are set up with donor funding that is often specifically appointed to a project or Basin Board, and is therefore not freely spend. At the moment, there is no donor money for the Dayi Basin Board.¹¹⁶ The board members also have difficulties as there is no budget. Minor problems are of transport and the costs for fuel. People make a commitment and want to at least receive compensation. According to Ken Kinney, this is given¹¹⁷. However, no sitting allowances are paid while this is a common practice in Ghana.

Another problem is that several board members were unaware of the existence of Dayi Basin Board. Strangely, they did not know they were actually the representative of their department. This is because institutional memory is lacking.¹¹⁸ When new people start working for a department, they do not get any information about the board. This is a disturbing fact since the board has been inaugurated in 2010, and seems to be successful on paper.

There are problems seen with the decentralisation of the board as the Dayi Basin Board is too dependent on WRC. A solution for this problem could be subdividing the board in sub-commissions, as the day-to-day management should be at the ground, bottom-up. Different districts can locally involve the people more on specific matters, as the Jasikan District stresses.¹¹⁹ In line, the Development Institute believes that the District Assemblies should be responsible for everything, all the day-to-day activities. It is seen as important that the WRC takes a step back. Now WRC is financially responsible for the board, but as a governmental institution, they are too expensive for the implementation process. WRC should only be supervising, and help in understanding the occurring problems.¹²⁰

Next to the problem of decentralisation, board members give different reasons. The importance of commitment is stressed.¹²¹ Furthermore, alternatives are needed when current livelihoods need to be changed, otherwise people will be left empty-handed when the board decides to implement policies like the Buffer Zone Policy. Another problematic point is that sanitation is now only advocated for by the district assemblies. They do not have the capacity to deal with this effectively, and will not advocate for these problems in the board according to the Development Institute. Making the board not completely integrated yet.

Moreover, the different departments seem to be unable to enforce laws. Stakeholders make clear that they believe a weak law enforcement, is one of the important reasons why there might also be difficulty implementing the basin plan.¹²²

6.4 Future of the board
‘All in all Good planning, good leadership, and good resources’ - Thywill Kpe, Department of Gender
Even though there are many obstacles and yet unresolved problems, the board members remain positive. The (future) board is seen by WRC as overseeing, giving direction and advising. One of the main tasks of the board members will be to identify the main water users in the basin, and to make sure they get permits for their water use. Now water is sometimes used illegally.

When asked if the board will have enough power to make sure that the proposed actions will be undertaken, Bob Alfa assures us that it will.¹²³ Important to note though, is that the Board itself will not undertake all the proposed actions, they will be advising other institutions, proposing their plans.¹²⁴ Therefore, the claim that the board will be powerful enough to make sure that their plans are being carried out, is questionable.

Besides the proposed actions in the Dayi River Basin IWRM Plan, Bob Alfa from the WRC also elaborated on their future plans for the board in the interview that was held. Alfa explained that, since the Dayi Basin Board is a new board, they will not undertake major activities yet. Most of the plans the WRC is having for this year is increasing of public awareness, and getting to know the people in the basin. They want to make clear why water resources are important, why they should not farm close to the river, how they should dispose of their waste. According to Alfa education has to be the first action, before any other interventions: ‘So education is the first, let the people be aware, let them understand. Then when you will come and correct it, it will be sustainable’.¹²⁵ A second step they want to take is the creation of subcommittees, based on specific problems or specialties, that will handle particular issues, so that every board member will have a specific role to play. Another action that WRC wants to undertake is the implementation of the Buffer-Zone Policy, since it is believed that this will be of great importance to fight the pollution caused by agrochemicals, and will also protect the river banks against erosion and exposure to the weather conditions.

For now WRC seems to be the only board member that concretely has an idea about the future of the board and the proposed actions. Other board members see themselves as extending the work they already do, but then in function of the board. A new board meeting will be necessary to make the upcoming actions truly participatory for all the members.

7 Consultative institutions and local involvement

Although the basin board is not fully implemented, participation of stakeholders is already happening in the Ghanaian political system, which will also form the basis of the participation within the board. Moreover, the board itself is set-up in a participatory way.

7.1 Local involvement in the government

Participation of stakeholders within water institutions in Ghana happens via different channels. First, the decentralised of the national government ensures that local stakeholders have a place within the government. Stakeholder consultation in Ghana is backed by the process of decentralisation that was adopted in 1992. The national government is divided in regions, which are subdivided in districts that consist of multiple communities. The district-based planning by District Assemblies is the cornerstone of the decentralized governmental approach.¹²⁶ At the community level local participation takes place via town and area councils where local issues are discussed before they reach district assemblies. District assemblies are made up of elected member, technical experts and traditional leaders, giving civil society a voice. The district assemblies also form an important mechanism for accountability as an assembly member has the responsibility to go back to the community.¹²⁷

Next to the decentralisation of the government, regional governmental departments, such as the Forestry Commission, try to include local communities in their policies and plans. The Forestry Commission involves people with the management of forest reserves. Local people are involved in labour and protection of reserves. People are consulted on the management plan.¹²⁸ When speaking to the CWSA they mentioned that for the placement of a borehole, the local citizens are involved and free to decide where the borehole needs to be placed.¹²⁹

Problems with involvement

Although the government is well on its way to include local stakeholders within policies and plans, reality shows participation is not inherent to decentralisation. There are gaps in legislation, overlapping responsibilities, lack of resources and capacity and enforcement.¹³⁰ Policies that are made are not necessarily involving civil society. For example, the Hohoe Municipal is undertaking actions towards the policy objective ‘community and mass participation in governance and decision making’, such as supporting sub-district structures, upgrading communities to the national electricity grid, etc.¹³¹ Although this is a good step to empower communities, and therefore a start to more participation, it is not a way to involve local people in the decision making process directly. District Assemblies are not very effective. Different interviewees mentioned that in the bottom up implementation much information gets lost. Challenges are political interference and low commitment from government officials. Moreover, smaller districts compared to larger municipalities encounter difficulties with budget allocation.¹³²

Besides struggles within the decentralization and involvement process, the participation within regional departments is not perfect. The fact that they mainly focus on education, seems to indicate that they do not have the means to involve people, but only to inform them. Moreover, the regional departments are often very dependent on the national government. For example, the CWSA includes the citizens when they decide on the place and type of borehole, but the District Assemblies decides in which villages the boreholes should be placed. ¹³³ ‘The involvement of local people is not optimal’, says Edith from the Forestry Commission, ‘People need to be involved more. People need good incentives to change. Participation goes both ways’.¹³⁴

7.2 Participation within the board

Having mentioned the troubles of the inclusion of civil society, the Ghanaian government is well on its way to implement stakeholder involvement. The Water Resources Commission has put up a platform for stakeholder participation in the form of Basin Boards. When looked at the Dayi Basin Board, local stakeholders are already involved at different levels. First, ‘there is a participatory process of selection’, according to Bob Alfa. The process of putting up the DBB was done with the consultation of local stakeholders (see box 4).

Box 3 Selection of board members of the Dayi Basin Board

The first step is done by a general process of identifying the players. In some cases there are over a hundred stakeholders that have to be consulted. A workshop is organised to bring these people together and divide the stakeholders in groups. For the selection of a board there is a maximum of 16 members, an election will be held among the attendants to identify the most important actors. The board is put together to include members that represent different water interests and users. District assemblies and chiefs need to be included as members. The selection of the districts that will become board members is done by the portion of land that falls within the basin and the location within the basin, so that all the different areas from upstream to downstream are covered. The traditional leaders that will become members are chosen among the different chieftaincies themselves. ^135 It remains unclear how participatory this process is, as on the one hand they say board members are chosen from within the stakeholder group. However, how these stakeholders are selected remains unknown, as it is a process from within the WRC. ^136

The Dayi Basin board is the first of its kind to include traditional leaders and farmer groups, taking local involvement to another level. This level of inclusion of local stakeholders is a pilot project for WRC to increase the level of participation. At the moment, there is even a plan to extend the number of board members up to 20 to enlarge the proportion of bottom-up players within the board.¹³⁷

For the development of the Dayi River Basin IWRM Plan, the WRC has consulted basin-based stakeholders on their perceptions of water resources management issues and on actions they see necessary to address problems. The WRC organised a series of workshops in Hohoe in 2009, 2010 and 2011 to collect local views on how to tackle climate change and water management issues that vulnerable communities within the basin are dealing with.¹³⁸

The board members are involved in meetings, plans and activities. Moreover, local involvement does not end with the board members. At certain meetings there will be other stakeholders present. If the board would be fully active, day-to-day management will be executed by subcommittees, local offices etcetera. WRC is planning to put up the subcommittees that will take care of particular issues from this year on.¹³⁹ These subcommittees should form the heart of local participation, working on the planning and implementation of activities, as well as monitoring and evaluating.

Problems with participation
Participation is seen as important, not just by national government, but also by the other regional departments. As the Fire Department in Ho states: ‘If we go to leaders- they are not the people who are suffering. Community members live with the problem; leaders do not have the ideas what needs to be done. The leaders are not the ones who will need to adapt’.¹⁴⁰

Although WRC is putting effort in including local stakeholders the process is not perfect yet. One of the problems that are sometimes encountered is that the official number of board members is not sufficient for a board to function. When including farmer groups, chiefs, NGO’s and queenmothers as well, the number of official board members should be increased.¹⁴¹ As indicated before, there are plans to increase the number of official board members so that all parties can have an official voice. For now, some boards have unofficial board members, since their input is necessary, but legally there is no place for them. That might work demotivating, since their costs are not covered, and therefore they do this task solemnly based on their own commitment. ¹⁴²

Another problem that might arise is that, when working with a grass-root approach, some board members might have difficulty with the language (since English is the second language of most people in Ghana), graphs, charts and the understanding of certain concepts. For now, these problems have not come up, but these are issues that should be anticipated.¹⁴³

Participation is well on its way in Ghana, however a lot needs to be done still. The board needs to start functioning. Local involvement can be fully anticipated for when plans and policies set up by the board are taken back to the District Assemblies and passed through in their bye-laws. ‘Then it becomes a legal document to be used and I think that is the next stage’, as Ken Kinney from the Development Institute mentioned.¹⁴⁴

It stays difficult to tell whether locals are really involved on the ground, and can have a monitoring and controlling role. Although participation is included within the activities of the Basin Board, the reality is that the board is not fully implemented. A problem with this is the availability of information and the level of education.
7.3 Open access to information
In Ghana there is open access to information for the public on the governmental policies and actions on water resource management for the Dayi river basin. All legal documents are public. However, there is no real forum for ordinary people to have access to these documents. Open access of information is, according to the executive director of the Development Institute, a critical task of NGO’s and this should be the work of the board. But as the board is not functioning, access remains very difficult. Since they do not have implemented their policies, they cannot go back to communities for communication.¹⁴⁵

Open access to information is not something that is grounded in Ghana’s governmental system. Although different stakeholders have said that people can walk into a department, this is something that is not likely to happen. As a large proportion of the Ghanaian citizens has not even finished secondary schooling, the information that is available will often be written in a way that is hard for them to understand.¹⁴⁶

Moreover, conducting this research revealed the difficulties with getting access to information and reports. Many of the stakeholders were reluctant to give information at first hand. Therefore, it seems likely that for ordinary citizens gathering information is not easily done.
7.4 Opinion local stakeholders (bottom up)

The opinion of local stakeholders on how participation is going, is difficult to tell. The fact that chiefs say that they are not really taken into account within district assemblies shows that participation still has a long way to go. Also members of the District Assemblies want more involvement. Speaking to local stakeholders as farmers is often a difficult exercise, participation is often something they are not fully aware of, or do not understand. When asked if they are participating in the planning, they will explain to us that they are informed of plans, but this of course is not the same as making an active contribution to management of their resources. They can make clear that filing complains is often a difficult thing, as will be stressed next. The institutional basis for tailored 2-way participation is not existing yet.

7.5 Conflict management
In the Dayi river basin there are not many large conflicts, as there are no extensive economic activities that clash in a direct way. However, conflicts will always arise as a part of water management. Clashes occur between the different governmental departments, or between the government and its citizens.

Local people have different means to complain about incompetence of governmental institutions, or companies. First, communities can go to their local chief if they have problems with a local institution. There are more levels to file complains. When it comes to problems between departments and citizens, the area or district councils are the level on which people can file complaints. These councils will in their turn report to the sector minister, who will write a letter to the regional office. It is a form of control. As a last resort, people can write to the ministers involved. It happens quite often according to the WRC: ‘we have quite a lot of people writing directly to the ministers, because of something they think we haven’t done well (..) Then we will have to come and explain’. Another channel that is used for conflict resolution is the media. If a regional office such as EPA or WRC does not do their job well, people can complain and release this to the media.¹⁴⁷

The means to complain are not always sufficient. There are problems with regard to the chieftancy. An example is about the filing of complains about the revenue collection for boreholes in smaller communities. With the revenue collection corruption within committees causes that money is not spend on the maintenance of water facilities. If people want to complain they have to report to the chief. However, the chief is not an independent institution that handles these conflicts as he is also a member of the committee in charge of the boreholes.¹⁴⁸ Complaints at local levels are thereby not always heard. Complaining at a district level can also be inadequate. It is often not sufficient as district assemblies do not have any power over regional departments.

Different solutions are brought forward by the different interviewees. Problems regarding the use of resources could be dealt with more locally. Within forest reserves the Forestry Commission can forbid people to make use of the forest, however these people still need to make a living. A solution can be found within a community resource policy concept. In principle, the people are alleged with the management of the reserve.¹⁴⁹ According to the EPA, education should play a big role in the prevention of the depletion of resources and thereby indirectly in the deterrence of conflict. Often depletion does not originate out of will, but out of ignorance.¹⁵⁰

The Basin Board is put up to coordinate the clash between different interests of the stakeholders. This should not only become a new level of governance in which people come together to make policies, but also a vehicle for complaint and solutions to diverging interests.

8 NGOs and donors in the Dayi River Basin

8.1 NGOs and local participation
There are not many NGO’s prevalent in the Volta region, as indicated by the Development Institute, WRC and the Dutch Embassy (as other informants). The Development Institute is the main player in the Dayi Basin concerned with human security and the protection of the environment. Their vision is based on equity for everyone. One of the projects the Development Institute has been involved in is ADAPTS. Different communities are involved in sustainable agriculture via irrigation systems. In this way the Development Institute tries to mobilize civil society and to work on capacity building, since they believe that ‘people need to take matters into their own hands’.¹⁵¹

When implementing projects the DI wants to consult different communities. They try to get information about the difficulties people are facing, and what is necessary to counteract their problems. The Development institute involves these local groups in every step of their project; ‘In every activity they need to be engaged’. During the planning and implementation the farmers can opt for changes of the plans. The NGO believes that the local participation is very important, as it is a means to validate their activities.¹⁵²

Moreover, they feel it as their task to empower local people. With regard to information from the government, documents still stay out of reach for a very big portion of citizens since most people do not own a computer or know how to work on it. DI wants to get these documents in a more reader friendly form to let communities have access to this information.¹⁵³
8.2 The importance of NGOs

For local participation to work within the Dayi Basin, more initiatives are needed to empower and educate the public. This must come from governmental sources, however these are still weak. There is therefore a great importance for NGOs and civil society initiatives to take this up and to make people aware and able to influence the government. As long as people do not know their civil abilities, a Negotiated Approach will not come into existence.

NGOs are important for strengthening the IWRM as they can put pressure on the ineffective management of a water body. The executive director of the DI, Ken Kinney, is passionate for the implementation of the Basin Board.he has already put pressure on the WRC to start the new meetings. Furthermore, according to Ken Kinney, they have a deeper knowledge of the problems that civil society are faced with. They can bring in new perspectives into the board, for instance on the rights of people according to their natural resources. ¹⁵⁴

Next to enabling better local participation, NGOs are also needed to complement the work of governmental institutions. Since the WRC wants to implement the Buffer Zone Policy (see part 7.4: Future of the board), many farmers will then have to move away from the river banks and find new ground to work on. Since they moved closer to the rivers and streams for a reason, their moving away from them will again put them in a difficult position. WRC is responsible for taking care of the water sheds, not the people in its vicinity, and therefore is not responsible for helping the farmers adapting their livelihoods when the Buffer Zone Policy will be completely implemented. As the WRC made clear: ‘That is why we need NGO. When it comes to that level, our department has limitations. You cannot send them without alternative livelihoods, but that is outside our mandate. That is why the partnership between us and the Development Institute and other NGOs is very crucial’.¹⁵⁵

9 Summary of Part Two

In Ghana the main player concerning Integrated Water Resources Management is the WRC, who have also developed a national IWRM plan and have set up several Basin Boards, one of them being the Dayi River Basin Board. Besides the national government, traditional leaders such as chiefs and opinion leaders also have an important role to play in the community, since they almost always have a place in the District Assembly and in that way create a connection between governmental systems and the local people. Since land is owned privately and water provision has become a private business as well, the “right” to resources such as land or water are hard to claim. The coordination between the different ministries, departments and agencies is weak, since there is no real integration of the management of water or any other natural resource. One way in which WRC tries to change this is by setting up the basin boards, in which local stakeholders come together to work on problems and solutions as a unit. The Dayi Basin Board is unique in that it is the first basin board in Ghana that includes local stakeholders such as farmers, chiefs and queenmothers, and is therefore ‘bottom-up’. Unfortunately the board is not fully active yet, and many problems still exist, one of them the big dependence on WRC to make it functional and fully resourced. Still, the board members seem hopeful that in the future the board will be active and powerful enough to make a difference in the water management of the catchment area.

Participation of all stakeholders, including local people like farmers, market women and opinion leaders is a goal the Ghanaian governments works towards. While there seems to be the political will to include all stakeholders, reality is still far from ideal. In many cases “participation” means education, which is informing people instead of actually discussing with them. Problems arise on all political levels, and for now participation seems to be limited to consultation when certain plans and policies are made, and the setting up of the board. It is difficult to truly understand how local community members see the situation themselves, although they are clear that problem solving (for instance regarding water shortages or bad quality) poses difficulties.

There do not seem to be many NGOs working on water resource management or livelihood adaptation in the Dayi River Basin at the moment. These NGOs are needed, especially since community based organizations seem to be absent. NGOs and CBOs are needed to make the Negotiated Approach a reality in the basin, by making local stakeholders aware of their rights and power, as well as helping governmental institutions like the WRC by complementing their actions.