A Rapid Overview of Water Research Projects in the Volta Basin: The Objectives, the Outputs and the Relevance

The effective management of transboundary international rivers has become urgent in recent times as a result of rapid population growth, industrial expansion and negative fluxes from climate change impact. The Volta River Basin is drained by an international river shared among Ghana, Burkina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire, Benin, Mali and Togo. There have been several attempts at reaching a laudable regional cooperation in this basin since the last decade. These efforts had been capacity building, empowerment of vulnerable communities and steps towards the establishment of the Volta Basin Authority. There is no comprehensive document assessing the level of impact of these dotted projects in the basin. Therefore, this document hopes to bridge this gap by providing a quick overview of the most important water research projects that have taken place in the basin in the last decade and the thematic areas covered by these projects. It will serve as a guide in the formulation of specific project goals to avoid duplication in the basin and, as a result enable stakeholders to focus on precise problems that have not been tackled by previous or current projects.

Currently pursuing PhD in Hydrology & Water Resources at Hohai University, China. He holds MSc (GIS & EO in WREM, ITC – Netherlands), PCert. ( GISfor IWRM, RCMRD – Kenya), BSc (Civil Eng., KNUST-Ghana). Co-founder and facilitator of Green WaterHut and Ecoyouth Africa Initiative,Ghana.