WATER SECURITY

Access to safe water is a pre-requisite for a healthy population. The availability of water systems, their functionality and the quality of water are necessary for the provision of safe water for drinking and domestic purposes.

Pru West enjoys only rural water services from rural water services from the Assembly with technical support from Community Water and Sanitation Agency(CWSA) and non-governmental organizations. A few small communities located along the distribution lines have also been connected to its system.

Data from baseline data collection by SMARTERWASH report indicates that 32.6% of the people had access to safe drinking water in the district. Practically, Small Town Piped Schemes (Prang and Abease) in Per-urban water services to the district have not kept pace with the high demand arising from the rapid population growth of these settlements. This situation has forced the Assembly to intervene by providing financial support to meet demand gaps while individuals have also constructed their limited mechanized piped systems due to the high demand and the quick returns they get on their investments. The situation is far from being resolved as new residential areas continue to spring up amidst the vulnerable nature of the schemes. Even residence in the peri-urban areas still struggle to meet their water needs owing to inefficiency.

In localities where rivers and streams are the major sources of water, there may be serious health implications for the people.

The provision and management of potable water has not been an easy task to the Assembly. The Assembly is currently faced with a number of challenges in its quest to make water accessible to the people. The challenges range from human to natural factors.

There is however potential pollution threats on the water bodies following the onshore oil and gas exploration within the district. Preventive measures ought to be considered by all key stakeholders including Environmental Protection Agency, Ghana National Petroleum Commission, Central Government, NGOs and CSOs in protecting both underground and surface water.

Key Development Issues

1. Occasional drying of handpumps

2. frequent break down of handpumps

3. unhygienic wells without protection

4. low water table

5. potential pollution from onshore oil exploration

6. inadequate logistics for field officers

7. low capacity of Water and Sanitation Management Teams(WSMTs)

NATURAL AND MAN-MADE DISASTERS

The district experiences disasters of varied forms. The predominant natural disaster however is drought and bushfire. There are occasions when rainfall is so erratic that it negatively impacts agricultural activities. When droughts prolong, crops are exposed to pests and diseases of different forms and that can also get catastrophic. Some areas in the district are also susceptible to flooding during periods of excessive rainfall. Areas such as Agyina, Abodwom, Hyreso, among others have experienced floods in the past. It is important for the district disaster management organization to liaise with all stakeholders to identify and map out disaster prone areas in the district so as to enable them develop targeted interventions and as well respond timely and appropriately before and or after disasters occur.

Key development Issues

· Frequent bush fires

· Flooding

NATURAL RESOURCE UTILIZATION

Man has always sought to improve his physical surroundings to make it more habitable. Over the years considerable amount of energy is being put into activities aimed at improving the welfare of mankind. Some of these measures include the construction of physical infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, water facilities, toilets, houses etc. Although these interventions help mitigate major human sufferings, they sometimes impact negatively on the environment which supports our existence on this earth.

The 2010 Population and Housing Census put the growth rate of Pru district at 3.0% rates slightly higher than the national figure of 2.7%. This is an indication that the growth of the local context population is higher than the national growth. The people in the district derive mainly their livelihoods from the environment thus the land for farming, animal husbandry and settlements and the rivers (Volta Lake and Pru) for fishing and transportation. Juxtaposing the rapid population growth and the daily requirement of the population imply much pressure on the natural resources to meet the growing demand.

Population and development are inextricably related as changes in one extreme invariably affect the other. Everything that humans do has some impact on the environment. Pollution is a result of human activities on the environment. The main sources of pollution are farming, water pollution and air pollution. Farming is having an increased impact on the environment.

This is because there is increased pressure on farmers to produce a single crop and to concentrate on one form of animal husbandry, such as, dairy cattle or pig breeding. Monocultures are produced from this, which are large areas of the same crop grown on the same land year after year.

To explore the impacts of increasing human numbers on nature, many changes have been observed in the district regarding the relationships between human population density (HPD) and biodiversity. The implicit assumption in many of these observations is that as population density increases so does the threat to biodiversity. The implications of this assumption are compounded in our understanding that, species richness for many taxonomic groups is often highest in areas

with high human population density. If increasing human population density is a threat to conservation, this threat may be magnified owing to the spatial congruence between people and species richness. In light of this, recognition must be given to the relationships between human population density and measures of biodiversity status focusing in particular on evidence for the spatial congruence between people and species richness and the threat that increasing human population density may pose to biodiversity conservation.

Our understanding of the relationships between human population density and biodiversity is skewed by geographic and taxonomic biases. The most convincing indication of the negative impact of increasing human population density was a significant negative population correlation between density and the size of protected areas. The magnitude and implications of spatial congruence between people and biodiversity should be explored using the principles of complementarily and irreplaceability. Human development as a threat to conservation should be assessed within a complex, interdisciplinary framework, although population size is still considered a key factor. Future population growth and expansion of human settlements in the district will present increasing challenges for conserving species-rich regions and maximizing the benefits humans gain from nature.

Human activities have a major impact on the biodiversity, while biodiversity change is considered as an important global change in its own right. Experiences in the district have shown that, the effect of human activities on soil environment and plant diversity showed that the main soil environmental factors and plant species diversity had some obvious changes, of which, the changes of man-made pine woods and heavy grazing disturbance were the largest. It is suggested that natural laws and consistency of ecosystem processes in the low and long temporal scale should be considered adequately in the management of the environment.

Industrialization and Modernization has brought about a drastic change in the quality of the environment. Industrial pollution has caused air, water and land pollution. The emissions from the vehicles and the industries have caused the deterioration in the quality of air. The waste water generated from domestic and effluents released from industries are being sent directly to the rivers thereby deteriorating the water quality. Lack of waste management practices has also had a negative effect on the quality of the environment. Human activities like burning of electronic wastes (e-wastes) and plastics have caused release of carcinogenic substances. Dumping of wastes in landfills has also caused slow seepage of wastes into the ground thereby polluting the land and also polluting water in the nearby vicinity.

This way, the effect of human activities has been unexplainably and extraordinarily huge. Human activities, industrialization, modernization and rapid advancement in technology have had pernicious effects on the quality of the environment. There has been degradation of the quality of air, water and land. The need for economic growth by the nation and for that matter the district has put everybody in a race which in turn has had a negative effect on the quality of the environment. Individuals and organization are exploiting the natural resources present for a better living, but the repercussions are felt on the quality of the environment in threefold.