THE MINISTER for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Hon. Hackman Owusu- Agyemang has admitted that even though water is essential for life, it is regrettable that water is not easily accessible to all in the country.

The Minister noted that most people did not have access to good drinking water and they walk long distances to fetch water adding that there was an increasing stress on fresh water resources brought about as a result of increasing population.

Mr. Owusu-Agyemang was speaking at the World Water Day celebration at Ho. It was under the theme, "Coping with water scarcity".

He said the difficulties associated with getting access to potable water called for political inspiration, community and media attention as well as encouraged greater understanding of the need to be more responsible towards water use and conservation.

Mr. Owusu- Agyemang noted that water scarcity should be strategically addressed because the way it was being addressed now would affect the successful achievement of most of the Millennium Development Goals.

He noted that another problem facing the country was pollution of water bodies and asked that indiscriminate dumping of household, industrial and agricultural waste into water bodies be avoided.

Contributing, the Chairman of the Water Resources Commission, Professor Dorm Adzobu called for an integrated approach to water resource management that ensures coordinated development and management of water and related resources.

This, he said, needed to take into account development, supply and demand and to place emphasis on people and the ecosystems to sustain them to yield the best results.

Prof. Adzobu observed that the Water Resources Commission, the government institution mandated to ensure sustainable management and development of the country's water resources, has initiated substantial programmes in the broad areas of developing appropriate management instruments and created an enabling environment towards the effective implementation of integrated water resource management.

He said through coordinated activities by the various stakeholders such as traditional rulers, NGOs and government institutions, quality of water in the Densu Basin has been significantly improved.

The Prof. said similar institutional arrangements were being introduced for the white Volta basin to improve the area's water resources and increase stakeholder involvement in the decision making process to promote best practices in all fields.