Water for each Ghanaian reduces from 110 barrels to 48 daily

hana’s water availability figure of about 40,000 barrels for each person a year in 1960, going by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) figures, has dwindled to about 10,178 barrels annually in 2013. This means there has been a whopping reduction of about 60 per cent of water that is available to every Ghanaian in the spate of 53 years. The reduction also translates from 110 barrels daily for each person as pertained in 1960 when the population was 6.5 million, to 48 barrels in 2013, if the available water in the country were to be shared equally among the about 25 million current Ghanaian population. These revelations were made by Mr Minta A Aboagye, a former Director of Water at the Water Directorate of the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing in Accra last week Tuesday, December 17, 2013. Speaking at the launch of the first ever Ghana WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) Awards whose first edition is slated for 2014, Mr Minta Aboagye said the most worrying aspect of the situation was what it would be in the next 35 years (in 2050), when Ghana’s population is projected to have hit 40 million. “By then if the phenomenon of climate change has not wreaked havoc and our annual renewable water remains the same, the yearly per capita water availability will diminish to only 1,330m3 or 292,600 gallons,” he said. According to Mr Aboagye, when that happens the daily rationing that would be available to each Ghanaian would be 3.64m3 or just 801 gallons a day equivalent to about 18 barrels. “This is a frightening situation considering the fact that currently the country is classified as water-stressed,” the former Director of Water said. continued