Adoagyiri-Nsawam, March 22, GNA - A 17-member Densu Basin Board (DBB) mandated to evolve plans for the conservation, development and utilization of water resources in the basin was on Monday inaugurated at Adoagyiri-Nsawam.

Five out of the eight districts within the basin, government ministries, religious bodies, non-governmental organisations, the National Council on Women and Development (NCWD), traditional rulers and the Water Research Institute (WRI) were represented on the Board. In a speech read on his behalf, the Minister of Works and Housing, Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris said government was committed to initiating measures to prevent the degradation of the Densu Basin, He said the Board would be the institutional focal point of a basin-based planning approach for a sustainable implementation of measures to improve the land use management, watershed rehabilitation and protection of buffer zones along the Densu river.

Alhaji Idris requested the Board to register water users and to grant water rights, assist in monitoring and evaluating programmes for the utilization and management of the water resources of the basin and to advice the Water Resources Commission on issues that might negatively affect water resources in the basin.

He also asked the Board to collaborate with water pollution control agencies towards the management and control of pollution of water resources.

Alhaji Idris told the Board that its assignment would not be complete until the "entire crisis that affects the many people that depend on the Densu have been addressed and water security is achieved." The Chairman of the Board of the Water Resources Commission, Professor Clement Dorm-Adzobu asked the Board to continue with a collaborative framework initiated by stakeholders to enable it implement its plans effectively.

He said integrative water resources management activities initiated at the District Assemblies and community level during the pilot stage in the basin would be replicated in a basin pilot for the White Volta sub-basin in the Upper East Region.

The Director of the Water Research Institute, Mr Charles Biney, Board member, said the group would work to achieve its objectives, to save the Densu Basin from degradation and pollution.