ACCESS4ALL Group

An identical Community Based Adaptation strategy initiative at my Local Community ( Wassa Kwabeng, Western Region, Ghana, Africa.) is the Fight against Sanitation, Deforestation and Galamsey activities . Over the years, Sanitation issues became very dominant among the people of Wassa Kwabeng. Improper Disposal of Waste, Open space defecation, Choked gutters which resulted to poor drainage and many more. These challenges led to a widespread of diseases such as Cholera, Dysentery, Malaria, Typhoids and others. Lifes were lost because of poor medical treatments at the local community. These problems persisted until 2017, where community leaders sat and made decisions about how to handle these problems. Afterwards, A Durbar was held, Inhabitants were educated on proper ways of waste disposal and other sanitation methods. Also, the community members were advised to refrain from open space defecation and use the Public toilets provided by the community. From then, A new rule was passed by the community leaders, Cleanup exercises and communal labors became the order of the day. These sanitation practices were organized twice every month from thence to today. This has affected lives positively in my community.

Also for years now, illegal mining activities have negatively affected my community in many ways; Loss of Aquatic and Terrestrial Species, Land Degradation, Water Pollution and Loss of Vegetation. These have impacted the Climates severely. Our community used to observe two seasons within the year, Dry season which used to start from November to February and the Wet Season from March to October Every year. These occurrences have not been so for the past Five years (5). I can boldly say my local community has been experiencing indeterminate weather and seasons for some years now. We do experience intense rainfall for couple of months and then follows intense sunshine. The Dry season these days mostly last for more than six months in year and this has affected agriculture negatively. Local dwellers are now exposed to too much dust and heatwaves.

As a matter of fact, this has been a great cause of concern for some us and the local people. Community Leaders are making consensus efforts to minimize the impacts of climate change, Not forgetting the Central Government too. For some few years now, the government through military intervention has placed a barn on illegal mining but these miners are very recalcitrant so this approach in my view is failing. The local leaders are also doing their best but we are not able to achieve our full goals because of the view that the jobless youth in my local community assert that they gain their daily bread from illegal mining activities. An initiative that my community has taken is finding alternative sources of income for people and also, tree planting exercises are now being organized for the people to plant trees to replace the lost vegetation. By these approaches, my local community has projected to achieve sustainability on a long-run.