Hamza Adam, a member of the Parliament's Environment and Science Committee, has urged the government to spend money on rainwater collection as a way to deal with Ghana's ongoing flooding problems.
The representative for the Kumbungu Constituency said on 3FM Sunrise that while floods are a major concern, they may also be successfully resolved. Harvesting floodwater is one of the innovative and profitable ways to deal with floods.
In order to benefit from the runoff produced by rainstorms, as is done in other parts of the world, he emphasised the importance of having a policy and a programme for water harvesting.
He said that water harvesting will be extremely helpful to the people in those places since "there are locations that suffer flood during rains, but they endure draught after the flood."
In order to produce water for use by people, animals, or crops, water harvesting typically refers to the gathering of rainstorm-generated runoff from a specific region (a catchment). Additionally, the water collected from the runoff can be kept in fire hydrants to aid in combating fires.
The Ghana National Fires Service has been complaining about the severely inadequate quantity of fire hydrants in the country for some time.
When their fire tenders run out of water while battling a fire, the inability to access hydrants creates major difficulties to fire fighters. Fire hydrants ensure a consistent and safe water supply from underlying water networks. Firefighters rely on external water sources in addition to the water in the tender to combat larger fire breakouts.
Hamza Adam wishes to see increased public education and awareness campaigns on how human attitudes contribute to the floods, as well as strong penalties for those responsible for the flooding in Ghana. People will be discouraged from acting inappropriately around the environment and motivated to do so by this.