Report
Overseas Field Training：Research on water quality and water problems in Ghana
Tomoko Makita
Destination and period: Republic of Ghana, September 5−18
My overseas field training in Ghana was carried out from Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, Georgia September 5 to 18 in cooperation
with the University of Ghana and Kwame Arial,
Helvetica, sans-serif, Georgia Nkrumah
University of Science and Technology. In this program my objective was to
consider environmental problems from the viewpoint of science, as
well as the social aspects. As a FOLENS student, I
planned to obtain the skills to gather information on the environment in an unknown field
and to work out the causes of
the environmental problems. In particular, I focused on environmental problems relating to water.
Basic properties (water
temperature, pH, COD, the concentration of dissolved oxygen, NO3-, NO2-, PO43- and SO42-) were measured for 15
samples (five drinking-water, eight river water, one puddle water at a damping site) from different locations (Accra,
Kumasi, Obuasi and Gomoa Dahom).
I also conducted an interview on the problem of water resources with Mr. Michael
Onwona, who works for the Environmental Protection Agency
of Ghana. This gave me invaluable information about
Ghana’s water problems in terms of the society and government policy.
From this research I managed to establish the
effect of inadequate water purification systems on water quality, the demand for sewage and
wastewater treatment
(especially in the gold-mining area) and the difficulties of water quality monitoring in Ghana.
Ghana is an economically
developed country compared with other countries in Africa, so it may well be an indication of the kinds of environmental
problems that will be seen in future in the whole of Africa.
Key words: Ghana, water pollution, water resource management