Pesticide Contamination in Groundwater and Streams Draining Vegetable Plantations in the Ofinso District, Ghana

Abstract

1.1 Ghana’s geographical location and climate Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana and formerly the Gold Coast, is a West African country with a geographical location of 5°36′ N, 0°10′ E. It shares borders with Cote d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north and Togo to the east. To the south of the country is the Gulf of Guinea of the Atlantic Ocean. The climate is tropical equatorial ranging from the bimodal rainfall equatorial type in the south to the tropical unimodal monsoon type in the north. It is influenced by the hot, dry and dusty-laden air mass that moves from the northeast across the Sahara and by the tropical maritime air mass that moves from the south-west across the southern Atlantic ocean. The annual rainfall ranges from 1015 to 2300 mm with annual mean temperature and relative humidity of 30°C and 80% respectively (Ntow & Botwe, 2011). Ghana has a total land area of about 23,853, 900 ha and a population of about 24.2 million. The arable land covers an area of about 13,628,179 ha (approx. 57% of total land area) of which approximately 44% is under cultivation.