Dr. Bob Alfa, Water Resources Engineer of Water Resources Commission, has urged Ghanaians to sustainably manage the nation’s water resources, due to its critical role in food security and the nation’s socio-economic development.

He said this could be done through the conservation of riparian buffer zones; which are forest areas around rivers, streams and other water bodies.

He explained that the riparian buffer zones improve water quality by trapping sediment and chemicals from runoff before reaching water bodies, moderates flooding, help recharge groundwater and prevent soil erosion.

Dr. Alfa made the appeal in an interview with Ghana News Agency in Accra at the launch of the Commission’s national policy document on Riparian Buffer Zone Protection for managing freshwater bodies.

He said riparian buffer zones create shade which lower water temperatures and hence improve habitat for aquatic organisms, provide a source of woody debris for aquatic and terrestrial organisms, provide food, nesting cover and shelter that enable wildlife to move safely from one habitat to another and increase carbon storage.

Dr. Alfa noted that land use activities had heavily degraded riparian areas, and imposing severe challenges to the physical environment, water resources, and livelihoods.

He explained that, under the new policy, the recommended buffer widths for water bodies are municipal reservoir shoreline protected areas such as the Weija Dam and Lake Bosomtwe covers 60 to 90 metres; major perennial rivers/streams such as the Volta and Tano, 10 to 60 metres and streams within forest reserves, 10 to 50 metres.

The buffer zone width shall be adjusted to include an additional 20 metres in case of land use involving animal feed operations or intensive chemical based farming.

The zone shall also be governed by enacted pollution control regulation.

He said land use involving flood recession farming where the community uses high fertile floodplains for farming, a variance to the buffer zone’s width may be considered.

Dr. Alfa urged metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to support the implementation of the new policy to safeguard the use of the nation's water resources.