A regional workshop on the EPIC Response Framework: “Innovative Governance for Flood and Drought Risk Management” has been held in Accra, with a call on stakeholders to apply innovative solutions to flood and drought challenges in West Africa.
The workshop followed an EPIC Response Framework Report launched in June 2021 for which Phase Two is being started to operationalize its content to help apply it in specific country contexts with the goal of improving policy dialogue and operations.
It was organised jointly by the Global Water Partnership in West Africa, the Country Water Partnership of Ghana (CWP-Ghana), the ECOWAS Water Resources Management Centre, the World Bank and the World Meteorological Organisation.
Phase Two focuses on the development of the EPIC Response Assessment Methodology (ERAM) to support clients to assess the status of their hydro-climatic risk management systems and discern a road map for strengthening its programme components.
The ERAM is a decision support system to inform the continuous evolution of flood and drought management systems to ultimately help deliver better services to communities to increase resilience to hydro-climatic stresses.
Madam Cecilia Abena Dapaah, the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources who made the call in a speech read on her behalf said because of the dire social and economic consequences of drought and floods in the sub-region, respective Governments had taken various steps to deal with them, which some measures of successes have been achieved.
She said: “However, a lot more needs to be done to make the most impact, and to achieve this, we are required to develop and apply innovative solutions at the local, national, and trans-boundary levels in the context of flood and drought risks management,” she stated.
She said there was the need for Governments to prioritize, accelerate and scale-up their responsive mechanisms in the decades ahead, and that “I consider this regional workshop being held under the flagship Report: ‘An EPIC Response: Innovative Governance for Flood and Drought Risk Management very timely and significant.”
Mr. Benjamin Ampomah, Chair, Country Water Partnership of Ghana (CWP-Ghana) called for a fundamental shift in the way natural resources are managed including water in terms of their associated risks in respect to extreme climatic events.
“This fundamental shift in my view should start with local solutions which are actions on responsible governance that will stabilize the environment and also the resources in a more holistic manner,” he stated.
Mr. Ampomah said, for instance, there was the need to improve critical governance issues such as coordinating and enforcing regulations in respect to response to extreme events and others.
He said: “Working in silos, especially within the public sector, and of course I will limit myself to Ghana for now, but I do know that at least within the sub-region it is basically the same. We cannot avoid working in silos, but what is required is to build bridges among this hitherto silo-based institutions in terms of our activities,” he stated.
The Chair said; “We have NADMO in Ghana under a different ministry, the Hydrological Department under another ministry, the Ghana Meteorological Agency, Water Research Institute, Local Government, they all have their mandate, but we need to build bridges to carry on and resolve the risks that we face.
“Carry out your mandate, do what you are supposed to do, but let build bridges in respect to governance to solve the problems that we have, because most of these problems that we have are cross-sectoral and we need to build bridges in terms of response,” he stated, adding; “It is therefore refreshing that the Global Framework on EPIC governance seeks to underscore this idea.”
Mrs. Adwoa Paintsil, the Acting Executive Secretary of the Water Resources Commission in a welcoming address said Ghana had over the past recent years put in a lot of effort in flood and drought management to minimize the extreme hydro-climatic disaster risks.
“However, for us in the Water Resources Commission, we do recognise that the management of floods and droughts is also a matter of governance involving a mix of several relevant institutions and stakeholders.
“We, therefore, appreciate and are encouraged that the EPIC Response Framework will serve us as the way forward to invest in strong partnerships and cooperation, at all levels, to stimulate the exchange of knowledge, tools, and resources to manage the risks of floods and droughts more comprehensively and systematically,” Mrs. Paintsil stated.
She expressed gratitude to all partner institutions and key stakeholders for their contributions to the Framework.