The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has embarked on massive tree planting exercise to protect the Barekese Dam, which has been supplying potable water to the Kumasi metropolis and other outlying districts.
Mr. Francis Kwesi Awotwe, the Ashanti Regional Chief Manager (Production), said the target was to plant 6,000 teak seedlings, this year, and already, they were done with about 2,200 seedling.
He announced this at the celebration of this year’s Water Day at Barekese in the Atwima-Nwabiagya District.
The event, held under the theme “Water and waste water”, was used to highlight the need for all to work together to promote sustainable management of fresh water sources.
It also provided the opportunity to educate and assist the people to appreciate the value of waste water and why it must be safely managed.
This comes amid growing concern over the wanton destruction of water bodies through illegal mining.
Mr. Awotwe spoke of the deployment of drones to closely monitor human activities in the dam’s catchment area to flush out encroachers.
He complained about unrestrained illegal mining activities in the communities, something that was polluting water sources.
He indicated that the cost of treatment of water for supply to the Konongo and Obuasi municipalities had kept increasing because the water had been rendered turbid by chemicals used by the illegal miners.
He therefore appealed to the municipal and district assemblies, chiefs and all other stakeholders, to act to stop the environmental havoc.
As part of the celebration, workers of the company were joined by school children and an NGO – Water Ambassadors, spent about two hours planting trees in the catchment area of the Barekese dam, which has the capacity to produce 33 million gallons of water a day.
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