What are the main developments?
“Let me highlight three of them that are relevant both for Ghana and for the region. The first is the need for better dredging of rivers, deltas and reservoirs. This has hardly happened in recent years, with all the consequences of flooding, shortages of irrigation water and so on. Together with the World Bank and the embassy, we are working on a long-term approach for performance based dredging.
A second theme concerns integrated water management. There are various problems in the deltas along the coast of Ghana and West Africa in general, such as pollution, salinisation and flood risk. Blue Deal has submitted an application to support addressing the challenges in the Volta Delta. The Blue Deal application involves the Dutch water authorities and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Infrastructure and Water Management.
And the third theme is the combination of water and agriculture. Food security is a high priority for West Africa in 2019. Cities are growing fast and the demand for food is keeping pace. Irrigation needs to be better addressed. We are working with the Ghanaian irrigation authorities to identify promising areas. We then want to start pilot projects with the Dutch water sector in Ghana and, at a later stage, in the region.”
