Evaluating the effectiveness of principles used for sharing resources of the Lower Ankobra Basin in the Western Region, Ghana

Abstract

AbstractThis paper evaluates the effectiveness of principles used for sharing resources of the Lower Ankobra River Basin found in the Western Region of Ghana. The purpose is to find out whether the institutions in charge of the management of the Lower Ankobra Basin are using principles prescribed by the United Nations Development Programme and the Sustainable Human Development (1997) for equitable sharing of the resources of the Lower Ankobra River Basin. The study adopted the descriptive research design. By means of in‐depth and semi‐structured interview guides, information was solicited from 268 respondents who played diverse roles in the conservation of the basin's resources. The paper found that management institutions fail to follow the right principles, such as equity, accountability, and efficiency, when distributing resources in the basin. The final results showed evidence of misallocation and uneven distribution of the basin's resources. It is recommended that the management institutions should periodically provide accurate, accessible, and comprehensible information on how resources have been utilized, by using community bulletin boards and social gatherings on behalf of users of the basin. In addition, to promote equity, the Government of Ghana must first compensate and reclaim all the lands in the basin from individuals whose activities impact negatively on its resources and hand them over to the Water Resources Commission for redistribution to more efficient areas of production based on the powers enshrined in Section 12 and 13 of the Water Management Act, Act 522, of Ghana.