Exploring stakeholders' perceptions of the quality and governance of water resources in the Wenchi municipality. Issue 8 (2nd July 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Okumah, Murat; Yeboah, Ata Senior
• Is Part Of: Journal of environmental planning and management. Volume 63:Issue 8(2020)
• Page Start: 1375
• Page End: 1403
• Publication Date: 2020-07-02
• Subjects: Ghana -- river water quality -- water pollution -- water resource governance -- Wenchi; City planning -- Periodicals; City planning -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; Regional planning -- Periodicals; Regional planning -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; 333.7
• DOI: 10.1080/09640568.2019.1663724
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0964-0568

Abstract

Abstract : Despite increasing evidence that understanding and integrating local people's perceptions of water quality and governance helps improve water governance processes, only a limited volume of research addresses this topic in developing countries. Therefore, using in-depth interviews and content analysis, the goal of this paper is to explore stakeholders' perceptions of the quality and governance of water resources in Wenchi, Ghana. Results show that stakeholders perceive river water quality to be deteriorating. Stakeholders' judgement of river quality is influenced by water use value, pollution sources, organoleptic properties and sanitary conditions of the riverbank. Stakeholders highlighted key areas that require authorities' efforts: formulation and enforcement of by-laws, awareness raising, provision of financial, logistic and technical support, conducting research and community mobilisation. These findings need to be carefully reviewed and systematically integrated into expert views to advance our understanding of the problem, how best to address it and who to target during interventions.