Dwindling water supply and its socio-economic impact in Sekyere Kumawu District in Ashanti Region of Ghana: public opini
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Dwindling water supply and its socio-economic impact in Sekyere Kumawu District in Ashanti Region of Ghana: public opinion on the role of climate change Kwame Adjei-Mensah . John Manyimadin Kusimi
Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract Water remains a vital natural resource necessary for sustaining life and development. Globally there has been increasing demand for water due to increasing population. Water demand has worsened in certain regions where in lieu of climate change water resources are declining. This has created livelihood impacts. Using in-depth interviews and household surveys of household heads and opinion leaders in the district, the study ascertained public opinion on the role of climate change on dwindling domestic water provision and how inadequate water supply affects the socio-economic lives of people at household level in Sekyere-Kumawu District in Ghana. Rising temperature, declining rainfall amounts and stormy weather were some of the perceived changing climatic elements explaining the reduction in the water resource base of the district. Shortage in water supply has great impacts on socio-economic livelihood and health of residents with greater impact on women and children. Households attributed low crop yields, the prevalence of water borne diseases and poverty as some consequences of low water supply owing to bad climatic conditions. The study recommends the development of district level climate change strategies, K. Adjei-Mensah J. M. Kusimi (&) Department of Geography and Resource Development, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana e-mail: [email protected] J. M. Kusimi e-mail: [email protected]
incorporating them into the overall national climate change policy to ensure a comprehensive climatic resilient economy to promote sustainable growth and development. Keywords Climate change Ghana SekyereKumawu Water resource Water shortage
Introduction All over the world, water is essential to human and animal lives and therefore must be protected for its sustainability (Potter et al. 2008). United Nations Development Programme (2012) explains water shortage as irregular available water resources to meet the demands of water usage within a region. According to Arthur and Sarpong (2000) if an individual person consumes less than 1000 m3 of water per year, then the individual is facing water shortage. When such a situation persists for a long period of time, then such a condition can be described as water scarcity. The Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment report (2000) explains that around 2.8 billion people around the world make use of water and it is estimated that at least 1 month out of every year, more than 1.2 billion people face shortage of clean drinking water. Around one fifth of the world’s population currently live in regions affected by water shortages,
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where there are inadequate water resources to meet a country or regional demand (Schaeffer et al. 2013). Vo¨ro¨smarty et al. (2010) and Goulde
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