This position paper discusses indigenous water resource conservation practices and modern methods to address challenges in Akwamu traditional area in the Eastern region of Ghana. Africa is bedeviled with environmental crisis in this 21st century, and this has been a major concern to environmental conservationists. In Ghana, one of such environmental crisis is pollution of water bodies as a result of indiscriminate human activities. Some have argued that non-recognition of indigenous knowledge in the management of water resources has been one of the major challenges of water resource crisis in Africa and Ghana is no exception. In the life and thought of indigenous people of Ghana, studies confirm that conservation of water resources is enforced through traditional religiously governed norms which have stood the test of time before formal institutions responsible for biodiversity conservation were established by government. Using Akwamu traditional area in Ghana as a case, this study explores how the indigenous people manage water bodies and to find out the possibility of incorporating indigenous knowledge practices and modern methods to address the current water resource problems in Ghana. Primary and secondary sources are employed for data collection. The study is carried out within the concept of ‘worldview’ to understand how indigenous people manage the environment through their indigenous belief systems. The findings are that; indigenous knowledge practices are potential tools for addressing water resource crisis in Ghana. The study also indicates that if indigenous knowledge practices are used alongside with the modern methods in water resource management, our water resource problems would be minimized if not totally solved in Africa.

Water is essential for food security and animal agricultural productivity, but it is becoming more scarce due to climate change. The interaction between climate change and livestock water resources has received little attention from researchers, despite the significance of small-scale animal husbandry for the rural poor in Africa and the size of the changes that are anticipated to have an impact on smallholder livestock systems. Threats to livestock water are undoubtedly one of the most significant environmental issues that have impacted food security on the continent, given their links to small-scale animal husbandry and the detrimental impacts on productivity. In order to balance the negative effects of climate change scenarios for sustainable animal productivity and contribute to food security through small-scale animal agriculture, the most climate-smart and resilient agricultural water practices and technologies must be used. Changes in rainfall and a decline in the biomass available for grazing and rangelands as a result of water stress brought on by the climate would have the most severe effects. This is due to the rain-fed nature of small-scale livestock farming. The local animal genetic resources are essential for animal productivity and food security in Africa, particularly in areas where livestock water is becoming scarce owing to climate change. Research and development goals on the effects of climate change on livestock water, animal productivity, and food security may need to be reviewed if demands of vulnerable small-scale animal producers are to be successfully addressed in the future decades. It is best to use an interdisciplinary approach to comprehend the relationships between small-scale animal husbandry, food security, and climate change. By navigating the complexities of climate adaptation, small-scale livestock farmers can manage livestock water scarcity by taking adaptation measures that are in line with evolving climate impacts and associated means of implementation based on pertinent and useful knowledge that takes into account a blend of traditional and modern water science. In this paper, an effort is made to close some significant information gaps and shed light on how water-induced stress impacts small-scale animal production, which has an effect on food security.

Estimation of crop water requirements is of paramount importance towards the management of agricultural water resources, which is a major mitigating strategy against the effects of climate change on food security. South Africa water shortage poses a threat on agricultural efficiency. Since irrigation uses about 60% of the fresh water available, it therefore becomes important to optimise the use of irrigation water in order to maximize crop yield at the farm level in order to avoid wastage. In this study, combined application of an artificial neural network (ANN) and a crop – growth simulation model for the estimation of crop irrigation water requirements and the irrigation scheduling of potatoes at Winterton irrigation scheme, South Africa was investigated. The crop-water demand from planting to harvest date, when to irrigate, the optimum stage in the drying cycle when to apply water and the amount of irrigation water to be applied per time, were estimated in this study. Five feed –forward backward propagation artificial neural network predictive models were developed with varied number of neurons and hidden layers and evaluated. The optimal ANN model, which has 5 inputs, 5 neurons, 1 hidden layer and 1 output was used to predict monthly reference evapotranspiration (ETo) in the Winterton area. The optimal ANN model produced a root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 0.67, Pearson correlation coefficient (r) of 0.97 and coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.94. The validation of the model between the measured and predicted ET_o shows a r value of 0.9048. The predicted ETo was one of the input variables into a crop growth simulation model, called CROPWAT. The results indicated that the total crop water requirement was 1259.2 mm/decade and net irrigation water requirement was 1276.9 mm/decade, spread over a 5-day irrigation time during the entire 140 days of cropping season for potatoes. A combination of the artificial neural networks and the crop growth simulation models have proved to be a robust technique for estimating crop irrigation water requirements in the face of limited or no daily meteorological datasets.

Human life and survival on Earth depend on the exploitation of diverse resources, including water. Improper use of environmental resources will lead to pollution and destruction. As one of the most sensitive areas of the environment to which human life depends, water is exposed to a variety of environmental pollutants. The protection of the health of water resources has created the need for intervention and the use of legal and criminal solutions in organizing their use. Domestic penal policy in the field of legislation, inspired by the provisions of Sharia law, along with local and national considerations for the protection of water resources, has directly and indirectly affected the requirements of accession to international instruments and has enacted regulations on the protection of small water resources.

Essentiality of water sustain life, and a satisfactory supply must be readily available to promote health, prolong life expectancy and prevent diseases. This study assesses the sources and quality of drinking water in Piwoyi community of Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria. Thirty-five (35) Boreholes and Two (2) Sachet water were identified sources of drinking water in Piwoyi Community. Six Samples (5 Boreholes and 1Sachet water) were selected at random and analyzed in the laboratory. The Physicochemical parameters examined include electrical conductivity (EC), pH, temperature, turbidity, dissolve oxygen (DO), chloride, total hardness, alkalinity, nitrate, calcium, magnesium, phosphate, phosphorous, sulphate, sodium, potassium, fluoride, bicarbonate, nitrate-nitrogen, nitrite, copper, iron and zinc; and Microbiological parameters include Coliforms, E-coli and Faecal Strep. The results of analysis shows significant concentration of physicochemical and microbiological parameters in the samples of water analyzed according to Nigerian Standard for Drinking Water Quality thereby makes the water unsafe for drinking. Drinking from these sources of water will pose serious health risk to the people of Piwoyi Community. Therefore, the study helps to identify the contaminated locations as well as assist to follow emerging remedial measures toward controlling the contamination source in the community. It also recommends continuous monitoring and enforcement of environmental violations, aggressive sensitization on water sanitation and hygiene; adequate purification of water at domestic level; and government support on potable water supply and establish reasonable management strategies for sustainable water quality protection toward protecting public health.