Water Insecurity: Mitigating the Looming Threat

In the wake of a water shortage that hit Nsawam in the Eastern Region of Ghana in 2016 due to the drying up of River Densu, scientists in the country explained that worsening water shortages were occurring worldwide, resulting from fast-emerging patterns in global weather conditions, environmental degradation, and an increase in land use. They asked Ghanaians to brace themselves for worse water shortages in the country as the global water crisis worsens.

The warning comes at a time when the focus in many countries is shifting from the concept of national security to human security, making the issue of declining access to safe water worldwide a serious security threat. Problems related to water shortages have the potential to disrupt life and livelihoods and lead to instability in communities, which, in turn, has the potential to affect national and global security.

Sub-Saharan African countries are likely to suffer the worst impacts of this fast-emerging threat in the coming years. Half of the world’s population who drink water from unsafe sources today live in Africa. The worst-hit on the continent is Sub-Saharan Africa, where 319 million people have no access to safe drinking water.

A 2022 study conducted by the UN found that only 13 out of Africa’s 54 countries have modest levels of water security, with Egypt, Botswana, Gabon, Mauritius, and Tunisia better off than the other countries in Africa regarding water security. Only 19 countries are deemed to have levels of water security below the World Health Organization’s threshold of 45 on a scale of 1 to 100. By contrast, Somalia, Chad, and Niger are the continent’s least water-secure countries. Egypt performs the best regarding access to drinking water, while the Central African Republic performs the worst. Ghana has safe water coverage for about 40 per cent of its population, indicating the need to put water security at the top of the national development agenda.

The worst-performing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa in terms of water security have been found to have severely overburdened water systems, which are collapsing under great stress from fast-growing urban areas. The problem of severe water insecurity has also been attributed to weak governments, corruption, mismanagement of national resources, and limited long-term investment in the provision of safe drinking water. Safe drinking water meets quality standards set by the World Health Organization and local government health authorities in every country. It is, therefore, free from pathogens and contaminants that can cause health problems.

We are very much concerned that water insecurity has become such a major global issue affecting individuals, households, communities, and whole nations, including ours. Limited or total lack of access to safe drinking water leads to serious environmental and health problems like malnutrition, dehydration, outbreaks of waterborne diseases, food insecurity, and forced migration. Water supply shortages have also led to conflicts, displacement of people, and the degradation of ecosystems.

Rather than resigning our fate to the threat of water shortage, and in as much as it may be far from easy to reverse the impact of decades of human activities that have led to the problem, tangible steps should be taken to mitigate the impacts of changing weather conditions and environmental abuse and degradation.

Building emergency tanks across the country to harvest rainwater, for example, is a feasible and sensible approach to coping with the anticipated shortages.

It is also necessary to stop the activities that have led to the pollution and drying up of our rivers and other water sources, which, in turn, reduce the volumes of safe water available for human consumption and other activities.

Ghana’s Pra River, for example, is a source of drinking water for many communities in the Western Region, but according to the Ghana Water Company, cyanide, mercury, and other lethally toxic chemicals are being washed into it as a result of illegal mining activities along the water body.

The pollution of River Pra has compelled the Water Company to spend about 30 per cent of its budget on the treatment of polluted water. This development has the potential to erode the company’s revenues in the long run and diminish its capacity to provide good drinking water for consumers in the affected communities.

There is, however, much more to the issue of the pollution of River Pra than the erosion of the Ghana Water Company’s revenues. The company’s laboratories have revealed cancer-causing chemicals in the water body, emphasizing the gravity of the pollution problem.

The water company suspects that it may not be only the Pra River which has been polluted by health-threatening chemicals but other rivers in Ghana along which illegal mining activities are ongoing. Ghana has five basins: the Densu River basin, the Ankobra basin, the Pra basin, the Tano basin, and the White Volta basin.

An official investigation is necessary to determine the range, levels, and impact of pollution of watercourses and sources in mining districts of the country by small-scale miners and giant mining firms alike. Such an exercise is necessary to establish whether or not there is a link between mining and Buruli ulcer, as well as other health-related problems suspected to be linked to mining activities. Buruli ulcer disease has been so endemic in the Amansie West District and other areas in Ghana where there is vigorous mining activity and copious use of chemicals is significant.

The bacterial organism that causes Buruli ulcer belongs to the same micro-organic family as the organism that causes leprosy and tuberculosis, both of which are common in many of Ghana’s mining communities. We suspect that victims are usually infected after drinking, washing, or being in constant contact with water from sources contaminated by mercury and other chemicals washed into the sources or through the inhalation of fumes from heated mercury.

One method small-scale miners use in extracting gold is to heat an amalgam of mercury and gold ore in a piece of old cloth or another suitable medium and squeeze out the mercury along with the gold. During this process, the small-scale miners inhale a lot of smoke and vapour from the concoction of pollutants.

Officials of the Asante-Akim North Municipal Tuberculosis Programme have suggested a possible link between illegal gold mining and a strange lung disease that killed about 100 people.

We urge governments in Sub-Saharan Africa to work toward the development of more sustainable, safe, and secure water supply systems in the region. This would require that governments incorporate water safety and water security into national economic development programmes to improve public health and advance the economic stability of Sub-Saharan African countries.